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Title: Blending Cr2O3 into a NiO-Ni electrocatalyst for sustained water splitting

Abstract

The rising H2 economy demands active and durable electrocatalysts based on low-cost, earth-abundant materials for water electrolysis/photolysis. Here we report nanoscale Ni metal cores over-coated by a Cr2O3-blended NiO layer synthesized on metallic foam substrates. The Ni@NiO/Cr2O3 triphase material exhibits superior activity and stability similar to Pt for the hydrogen-evolution reaction in basic solutions. The chemically stable Cr2O3 is crucial for preventing oxidation of the Ni core, maintaining abundant NiO/Ni interfaces as catalytically active sites in the heterostructure and thus imparting high stability to the hydrogen-evolution catalyst. The highly active and stable electrocatalyst enables an alkaline electrolyzer operating at 20 mA cm–2 at a voltage lower than 1.5 V, lasting longer than 3 weeks without decay. Thus, the non-precious metal catalysts afford a high efficiency of about 15 % for light-driven water splitting using GaAs solar cells.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [3];  [1];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [1];  [7];  [1]
  1. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
  2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  3. Alta Devices, Sunnyvale, CA (United States)
  4. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States); Hunan Univ., Changsha (China)
  5. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States); Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu (Taiwan, ROC)
  6. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States); Taiwan Normal Univ., Taipei (Taiwan, ROC)
  7. National Taiwan Univ. of Science and Technology, Taipei (Taiwan, ROC)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1224748
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Angewandte Chemie (International Edition)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Angewandte Chemie (International Edition); Journal Volume: 54; Journal Issue: 41; Journal ID: ISSN 1433-7851
Publisher:
Wiley
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
08 HYDROGEN

Citation Formats

Gong, Ming, Zhou, Wu, Kenney, Michael James, Kapusta, Rich, Cowley, Sam, Wu, Yingpeng, Lu, Bingan, Lin, Meng -Chang, Wang, Di -Yan, Yang, Jiang, Hwang, Bing -Joe, and Dai, Hongjie. Blending Cr2O3 into a NiO-Ni electrocatalyst for sustained water splitting. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1002/anie.201504815.
Gong, Ming, Zhou, Wu, Kenney, Michael James, Kapusta, Rich, Cowley, Sam, Wu, Yingpeng, Lu, Bingan, Lin, Meng -Chang, Wang, Di -Yan, Yang, Jiang, Hwang, Bing -Joe, & Dai, Hongjie. Blending Cr2O3 into a NiO-Ni electrocatalyst for sustained water splitting. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201504815
Gong, Ming, Zhou, Wu, Kenney, Michael James, Kapusta, Rich, Cowley, Sam, Wu, Yingpeng, Lu, Bingan, Lin, Meng -Chang, Wang, Di -Yan, Yang, Jiang, Hwang, Bing -Joe, and Dai, Hongjie. Mon . "Blending Cr2O3 into a NiO-Ni electrocatalyst for sustained water splitting". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201504815. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1224748.
@article{osti_1224748,
title = {Blending Cr2O3 into a NiO-Ni electrocatalyst for sustained water splitting},
author = {Gong, Ming and Zhou, Wu and Kenney, Michael James and Kapusta, Rich and Cowley, Sam and Wu, Yingpeng and Lu, Bingan and Lin, Meng -Chang and Wang, Di -Yan and Yang, Jiang and Hwang, Bing -Joe and Dai, Hongjie},
abstractNote = {The rising H2 economy demands active and durable electrocatalysts based on low-cost, earth-abundant materials for water electrolysis/photolysis. Here we report nanoscale Ni metal cores over-coated by a Cr2O3-blended NiO layer synthesized on metallic foam substrates. The Ni@NiO/Cr2O3 triphase material exhibits superior activity and stability similar to Pt for the hydrogen-evolution reaction in basic solutions. The chemically stable Cr2O3 is crucial for preventing oxidation of the Ni core, maintaining abundant NiO/Ni interfaces as catalytically active sites in the heterostructure and thus imparting high stability to the hydrogen-evolution catalyst. The highly active and stable electrocatalyst enables an alkaline electrolyzer operating at 20 mA cm–2 at a voltage lower than 1.5 V, lasting longer than 3 weeks without decay. Thus, the non-precious metal catalysts afford a high efficiency of about 15 % for light-driven water splitting using GaAs solar cells.},
doi = {10.1002/anie.201504815},
journal = {Angewandte Chemie (International Edition)},
number = 41,
volume = 54,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Aug 24 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Mon Aug 24 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}

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