Efficient Self-Powered Overall Water Splitting by Ni4Mo/MoO2 Heterogeneous Nanorods Trifunctional Electrocatalysts

The exploration of cost-effective multifunctional electrodes with high activity toward energy storage and conversion systems, such as self-powered alkaline water electrolysis, is very meaningful, although studies remain quite limited. Herein, a heterogeneous nickel-molybdenum (NiMo)-based electrode is fabricated for the first time as a trifunctional electrode for asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC), hydrogen evolution reaction, and oxygen evolution reaction. The trifunctional electrode consists of Ni4Mo and MoO2 (denoted Ni4Mo/MoO2) with hierarchical nanorod heterostructure and abundant heterogeneous nanointerfaces creating sufficient active sites and efficient charge transfer for achieving high performance self-power electrochemical devices. The ASC consists of the as-prepared Ni4Mo/MoO2 positive electrode, showing a broad potential window of 1.6 V, and a maximum energy density of 115.6 Wh kg(-1), while the alkaline overall water splitting (OWS) assembled using the as-prepared Ni4Mo/MoO2 as bifunctional catalysts only requires a low cell voltage of 1.48 V to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm(-2) in aqueous alkaline electrolyte. Finally, by integrating the Ni4Mo/MoO2-based ASC and OWS devices, an aqueous self-powered OWS is assembled, which self-power the OWS to generate hydrogen gas and oxygen gas, verifying great potential of the as-prepared Ni4Mo/MoO2 for sustainable and renewable energy storage and conversion system.

Automated summary

A novel heterogeneous nickel-molybdenum (NiMo)-based electrode was fabricated as a trifunctional electrode for asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC), hydrogen evolution reaction, and oxygen evolution reaction. The electrode exhibited a hierarchical nanorod heterostructure and abundant heterogeneous nanointerfaces, providing active sites and efficient charge transfer for high performance self-powered electrochemical devices. By integrating the NiMo-based ASC and alkaline water electrolysis devices, an aqueous self-powered overall water splitting (OWS) system was assembled, which demonstrated the great potential of the electrode for sustainable and renewable energy storage and conversion.