Strain stabilized nickel hydroxide nanoribbons for efficient water splitting

Wang, X. P.; Wu, H. J.; Xi, S. B.; Lee, W. S.V.; Zhang, J.; Wu, Z. H.; Wang, J. O.; Hu, T. D.; Liu, L. M.; Han, Yu; Chee, S. W.; Ning, S. C.; Mirsaidov, U.; Wang, Z. B.; Zhang, Y. W.; Borgna, A.; Wang, J.; Du, Y. H.; Yu, Z. G.; Pennycook, S. J.; Xue, J. M.

Type

Article

KAUST Department

Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center, Physical Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Thuwal 23955-6900 Saudi Arabia

Date

2020

Embargo End Date

2020-11-21

Submitted Date

2019-08-09

Permanent link to this record

http://hdl.handle.net/10754/661408

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Abstract

Development of efficient and durable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts has a direct impact on the water splitting efficiency and cost effectiveness. In this work, we report the successful synthesis of a new Ni(OH)2 structure, strain-stabilized Ni(OH)2 nanoribbons (NR-Ni(OH)2) two to three layers thick, with widths of 2-5 nm, via an electro-oxidation route. Conventional Ni(OH)2 usually has negligible OER activity, while NR-Ni(OH)2 shows high activity for the oxygen evolution reaction and an overpotential of 162 millivolts and furthermore exhibits long-term stability in alkaline electrolyte. The substantial reduction in the overpotential of NR-Ni(OH)2 is due to its easier OOH∗ adsorption by the active four-coordinated Ni edge sites. The enhanced catalytic activity of NR-Ni(OH)2 makes it an excellent candidate for industrial applications.

Citation

Wang, X. P., Wu, H. J., Xi, S. B., Lee, W. S. V., Zhang, J., Wu, Z. H., … Xue, J. M. (2020). Strain stabilized nickel hydroxide nanoribbons for efficient water splitting. Energy & Environmental Science, 13(1), 229–237. doi:10.1039/c9ee02565k

Sponsors

This work is financially supported by Singapore MOE Tier 1 R284000162114, Singapore NRF CRP funding R284000159281, and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) of Singapore This research is also supported by A*STAR with a Grant No. of 152-70-00017 and computational resources were provided by National Supercomputing Centre Singapore (NSCC) and A*STAR Computational Resource Centre, Singapore (A*CRC). This project was partly supported by the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) of A*STAR of Singapore. Yonghua Du thanks the National Natural Science Foundation of China for support (11528510). The XAFCA beamline at SSLS, and 1W1B, 4W2, 4B9A, 1W1A, 4B9B, 1W2A and 4B7B beamlines of BSRF are gratefully acknowledged for providing beam time to support this project. The authors also thank the Center for Bioimaging Center of National University of Singapore for the use of facilities. The authors are grateful to Dr Lirong Zheng, Xiaodong Chen, Yunpeng Liu, Yu Chen, Shengqi Chu, Guang Mo, Shuhu Liu, Zhihong Li and Ping Yang for assistance and helpful discussion in the synchrotron radiation characterization, and to Dr Jia Zhang and Poh Chee Kok for contributions to the DFT calculations.