Regulating the Heterostructure of Metal/Oxide toward the Enhanced Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

作者：Yuan, Zhibin; Yao, Xin; Zhang, Guoge^*; Fu, Nianqing; Liu, Yan; Ye, Feng^*

来源：ACS Applied Energy Materials, 2022, 5(5): 5644-5651.

DOI：10.1021/acsaem.1c03970

• hydrogen evolution reaction
• metal/oxide hybrid
• catalyst
• heterostructure
• nickel

Designing a metal/oxide hybrid is an effective approach in facilitating water dissociation (Volmer step) for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline solutions. It is critical to tailor the metal/oxide heterostructure and find out the structureactivity relationship. Herein, the tuning of the Ni/NiO interfacial structure and its influence on the HER activity were systematically studied. Ni/NiO-cp was prepared by controlling the nucleation rate and orientational growth of NiO. Plentiful wormlike NiO nanoflakes were produced on interlaced Ni nanosheets. Ni/NiO-cp possessed abundant oxygen vacancies, a high content of surface hydroxyl species, and numerous metal/oxide interfaces. Not only the adsorption of H2O molecules was accelerated but also the electrolyte penetration and proton transport were both facilitated. As a result, the HER overpotential to deliver 10 mA cm(-2) was significantly reduced by 124 mV as compared with that of the unmodified counterpart (asdeposited Ni). The performance of Ni/NiO-cp was superior to that of Pt/C at high currents (>100 mA cm(-2)). The facile regulation technique and the structure-activity relationship reported here are helpful for the discovery of low-cost and efficient HER catalysts.

• 单位
  中山大学