Journal
APPLIED CATALYSIS B-ENVIRONMENTAL
Volume 270, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2020.118889
Keywords
Surface nitridation; Metal alloy; Water splitting; Electrocatalyst; Cactoid structure
Funding
- MOE, Singapore Ministry of Education [MOE2018-T2-2-095]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [51202054]
- State Scholarship Fund from China Scholarship Council [201808320091]
- Changshu Institute of Technology Research Project of China [XZ1627]
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Surface engineering can disruptively raise the intrinsic performance of electrocatalytic materials. Herein, we propose a facile surface nitridation stretgy for nickel-cobalt alloy (Ni2Co-N) nanocactoids grown on carbon cloth in substantially raising the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) kinetics. Indeed, Ni2Co-N exhibits an ultralow OER overpotential of 214 mV at 10 mA cm(-2) in alkaline media, together with a small Tafel slope of 53 mV dec(-1), which not only breaks the cap of theoretical overpotential limit, but also is remarkably lower than those of the state-of-the-art 3d transition metal alloys and their derivatives. A nearly 100 % Faraday efficiency with a low and stable cell voltage of 1.59 V is achieved by an alkaline water electrolyzer made of the bifunctional Ni2Co-N as both the anode and cathode catalysts. The chemical and structural origin of the high catalytic activity is established to root from the fast surface reconstruction of Ni2Co alloy precatalyst, peroxo O-2(2-) species-induced lattice oxygen oxidation mechanism, acceleration in electron transfer, as well as the large active surface area as a result of the surface nitridation. The present study provides a guideline to rationally design active and stable 3d transition metal catalysts towards water oxidation and splitting.
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