TiN ceramic membrane supported nitrogen-incorporating NiCo2 nanowires as bifunctional electrode for overall water splitting in alkaline solution

Developing a highly efficient, cost-effective, and stable bifunctional electrode for both hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is still a major challenge. This work reports on a novel method for fabricating TiN ceramic membrane supported nitrogen-incorporating NiCo2 nanowires (NiCo2-N/TiN) as a bifunctional electrode. Owing to its unique structure, the ample reaction sites available, and the enhanced mass/ charge transport ability, the NiCo2-N/TiN electrode exhibits efficient catalytic performance both in HER and OER, with overpotentials of 131 mV at 20 mA.cm(-2) for HER and 330 mV at 20 mA.cm(-2) for OER, together with excellent stability in alkaline solution. The NiCo2-N/TiN electrode only requires a cell voltage of 1.71 V to drive the current density of 20 mA.cm(-2) for overall water splitting, which exhibits excellent stability for more than 100000 s. Accordingly, the produced ceramic membrane electrode has a great potential for application in industrial hydrogen production.

Automated summary

This study presents a novel approach to fabricate a bifunctional electrode with efficient catalytic performance in both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The electrode demonstrates excellent stability and has great potential for application in industrial hydrogen production.