Boosting Water Dissociation Kinetics on GaOOH Nanosheets by Transition Metal Doping

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Electrochemistry
• Catalysis

Background:

• Efficient electrocatalysts are crucial for cost-effective hydrogen production via water splitting.
• Developing stable and high-performance catalysts remains a key challenge in clean energy research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize and characterize a novel electrocatalyst for efficient water splitting.
• To investigate the catalytic activity and stability of Fe-doped GaOOH for hydrogen evolution reactions (HER).

Main Methods:

• Hydrothermal synthesis of Fe-doped GaOOH on nickel foam.
• Electrochemical characterization including overpotential and stability tests.
• In situ experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations.

Main Results:

• Fe-GaOOH exhibited an ultralow overpotential of 73 mV at 10 mA cm⁻² for HER.
• The catalyst demonstrated excellent stability, maintaining performance for 200 hours.
• A water electrolyzer using Fe-GaOOH required only 1.57 V to achieve 10 mA cm⁻².

Conclusions:

• Fe-GaOOH is a highly active and stable electrocatalyst for water splitting.
• DFT calculations revealed that Fe doping enhances water dissociation and hydrogen desorption.
• Transition metal doping in GaOOH is an effective strategy for improving catalytic performance.