Boosting borohydride oxidation by control lattice-strain of Ni@NiP electrocatalyst with core-shell structure

Lattice strain controlled Ni@NiCu efficient anode catalysts for direct borohydride fuel cells

“…The electrodeposition solution was composed of 1 M NiCl 2 ·6H 2 O and 0.1 M (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 . Finally, a multi-potential step 24 was applied to prepare the Ni catalyst using an electrochemical station (CHI 660e, Shanghai Chen Hua Instrument Co. Ltd). Finally, the Ni catalyst was rinsed thoroughly with deionized water for standby.…”

“…The details of the Rietveld refinement are the same as those in our previous work. 24 X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis was conducted using a Thermo Fisher Scientific ESCALAB250Xi instrument with Al Kα radiation, in order to investigate the surface composition of the catalysts. The C 1s peak at 284.8 eV, corresponding to the presence of surface adventitious carbon, was utilized as the calibration peak.…”

Research progress on direct borohydride fuel cells

“…5c–f). To improve the nickel-based catalyst performance further, making it more valuable for applications, they introduced the P element and synthesized an efficient Ni@NiP catalyst 44 for BOR. The introduction of P inhibited the oxidation of metallic nickel, while introducing tensile lattice strain in the catalyst surface, which raised the D-band center of nickel and thus enhanced its BOR activity.…”

“…= 10.6%) of the fuel used, excellent chemical stability for long-term operation, and mild operation conditions. In addition, using relatively less corrosive alkaline electrolytes offers the possibility of applying inexpensive, abundant transition metal catalysts, [44][45][46] which drives the commercialization of DBFCs. While using hydrogen peroxide instead of oxygen as an oxidant, DBFCs can attain a much higher open cell voltage (about 2.18 V) and significant theoretical energy density (17 kW h kg À1 ), 47,48 which are distinctly better than those of HCs (1.23 V and 3.28 kW h kg À1 ).…”

“…By virtue of the lower HER activity, lower cost and superior catalytic stability, completely non-precious metal catalysts gradually attracted more attention. [44][45][46][47][48] For example, Oshchepkov et al prepared a carbon-supported nickel nano-catalyst (Ni ED /C) via an electrochemical deposition process, which exhibited significant BOR catalytic activity in the BOR and outperformed all commercial noble metal electrocatalysts. 45 According to their experimental result, they discovered the following: (i) when the surface of nickel was covered by an oxide layer, both its HER and BOR activities are extremely low.…”