Electrodeposited Ni-Mo Surface Alloy @ Ni-Foam for Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Generation in Acidic and Alkaline Media

Abstract

Surface alloys using transition metal elements have been regarded as one of the intelligent choices in electrocatalytic hydrogen generation. Herein, hierarchical Ni-Mo bimetallic surface alloy @ microporous 3D Ni support is fabricated by controlled electrodeposition followed by annealing to exhibit hydrogen evolution performance comparable to Pt benchmark, both in the acidic and alkaline media. Precisely controlled formation of Mo-layer on Ni-foam during the electrodeposition through underpotential causes the formation of surface alloy, Ni-Mo. The optimized electrocatalyst shows low overpotentials of 58 mV and 50 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 in 0.5 M H2SO4 and 1 M NaOH solutions, respectively. Moreover, the developed electrocatalyst also shows low Tafel slopes of 58.8 mV dec−1 and 86.8 mV dec−1 in acidic and alkaline media, respectively. The density functional theory based approach suggests that the free-energy of hydrogen adsorption-desorption is lower for a lesser number of Mo layers deposited on the Ni-matrix to keep it very close to that of Pt.

Pd/Ni bimetallic modification of SrTiO3 for enhancement of photocatalytic water splitting

“…Consequently, researchers have been devotedly striving to develop innovative and efficient techniques for the production of hydrogen. Despite significant progress in this field, the commercial application of most semiconductor photocatalysts for solar-to-hydrogen conversion remains challenging due to their low efficiency [1][2][3][4][5][6]. The photocatalytic water-splitting reaction is a complex process involving the absorption of light by a semiconductor, which generates electron-hole pairs.…”

A ternary system exploiting the full solar spectrum to generate renewable hydrogen from a waste biomass feedstock

“…11 Among the bimetallic electrocatalysts, Ni-based alloys introduce the additional benefits of comparatively low cost, ready fabrication into high surface area nanostructures and simple and (in some cases) direct growth onto three-dimensional conductive substrates such as Ni foam and carbon fibre paper. Selected Ni-based alloys have been shown to exhibit high catalytic activity for the HER and the biomass (e.g., urea) oxidation reaction, 32,34 however their potential for waste biomass electrolysis has not been explored. Another complementary advantage is the oxidative transformation of biomass to value-added…”

“…Selected Ni-based alloys have been shown to exhibit high catalytic activity for the HER and the biomass ( e.g. , urea) oxidation reaction, 32,34 however their potential for waste biomass electrolysis has not been explored. Another complementary advantage is the oxidative transformation of biomass to value-added chemicals.…”