Compressive strain induced superior HER performance of nickel in alkaline solution

The HER requires a highly efficient, cost-effective, and stable catalyst to adapt to the large-scale hydrogen industry. Nickel has been confirmed to be useful to drive the water splitting reaction, but the intrinsic performance remains unsatisfactory. In this work, nickel (EG-Ni) with compressive strain was prepared through a one-step electrochemical deposition strategy. It shows an outstanding enhancement for the HER, and it achieves a current density of 10 mA cm(-2) at a low overpotential of 85.9 mV. A long-term durability test proves that the EG-Ni can tolerate a large current density of 100 mA cm(-2), and the overpotential remains steady without dramatically increasing. Such a low overpotential and superior stability are attributed to the optimized adsorption energy on the catalyst surface, as evidenced by the downshifted position of the d-band center.

Automated summary

Nickel with compressive strain (EG-Ni) was prepared through a one-step electrochemical deposition strategy, showing outstanding enhancement for the HER with low overpotential and superior stability.