A high-performance self-supported multifunctional NF@Pt electrocatalyst for overall water splitting and rechargeable zinc-air battery

Developing multifunctional electrocatalysts has been a lasting challenge. Herein, with dual surface guiding agents NaI and PVP, uniformly dispersive Pt nanoclusters on self-supported nickel foam (NF@Pt-1) has been fabricated with low Pt loading. The obtained NF@Pt-1 performs excellently in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), overall water splitting and rechargeable zinc-air battery. The NF@Pt-1 exhibits low HER overpotentials of 32.8 mV in alkaline solution and 50 mV in acidic solution at 10 mA cm-2. At a high current density of 100 mA cm-2, the overpotential for HER in alkaline solution is only 72.3 mV. The OER overpotential of NF@Pt-1 is 307 mV at 20 mA cm-2. All of these drive a 1.575 V overall water splitting potential. In rechargeable zinc-air battery, the recharging polarization voltage is only 0.869 V, 0.107 V smaller than that of the battery constructed with Pt/C. The excellent performances and the wide range of applications would be ascribed to the highly dispersion of Pt nanoclusters on self-support nickel foam under proper guiding effect of dual surface guiding agents. This work has explored an effective route for fabricating multifunctional electrocatalysts with relatively high performance-cost ratio.

Automated summary

In this study, a low Pt loading uniformly dispersed Pt nanoclusters on self-supported nickel foam (NF@Pt-1) was fabricated using dual surface guiding agents NaI and PVP. NF@Pt-1 exhibited excellent performance in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), overall water splitting, and rechargeable zinc-air battery. This work explores an effective route for fabricating multifunctional electrocatalysts with relatively high performance-cost ratio.