Integrating Rh Species with NiFe-Layered Double Hydroxide for Overall Water Splitting

Journal Article · 27 November 2019 · Nano Letters

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b03460 · OSTI ID:1603279

Zhang, Bowei  ^[1]; Zhu, Chongqin ^[2]; Wu, Zishan  ^[3]; Stavitski, Eli ^[4]; Lui, Yu Hui ^[5]; Kim, Tae-Hoon ^[5]; Liu, Huan ^[3]; Huang, Ling ^[3]; Luan, Xuechen ^[6]; Zhou, Lin ^[5]; Jiang, Kun  ^[7]; Huang, Wenyu  ^[6]; Hu, Shan  ^[6]; Wang, Hailiang  ^[3]; Francisco, Joseph S.  ^[2]

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1. Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States); Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)
2. Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States)
3. Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States)
4. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II)
5. Ames Lab., Ames, IA (United States)
6. Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)
7. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

NiFe-layered double hydroxide (LDH) is thought of as a promising bifunctional water-splitting catalyst, owing to its excellent performances for alkaline oxygen evolution reactions (OERs). However, it shows extremely poor activity toward hydrogen evolution reactions (HERs) due to the weak hydrogen adsorption. We demonstrated that the integration of Rh species and NiFe-LDH can dramatically improve its HER kinetics without sacrificing the OER performance. The Rh species were initially integrated into NiFe-LDH as oxidized dopants and metallic clusters (< 1 nm). In 1 M KOH electrolyte, an overpotential of 58 mV is needed to catalyze 10 mA cm^–2 HER current density. Furthermore, this catalyst only requires 1.46 V to drive an electrolyzer at 10 mA cm^–2. A strong interaction between metallic Rh clusters and NiFe hydroxide during the HER process is revealed. The theoretical calculation shows the Rh ions replace Fe ions as the major active sites that are responsible for OERs.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0012704
• OSTI ID: 1603279
• Report Number(s): BNL-213650-2020-JAAM
• Journal Information: Nano Letters, Vol. 20, Issue 1; ISSN 1530-6984
• Publisher: American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Transition metal hydroxides
electrolysis
metallic clusters
interaction
nanostructures