Interfacing Nickel Nitride and Nickel Boosts Both Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution and Oxidation Reactions

Authors

Fuzhan Song, Utah State UniversityFollow
Wei Li, Utah State University
Jiaqi Yang, Purdue University
Guanqun Han, Utah State UniversityFollow
Peilin Liao, Purdue University
Yujie Sun, Utah State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title

Nature Communications

Publication Date

10-31-2018

Publisher

Nature Research

Volume

9

First Page

1

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Last Page

10

Abstract

Electrocatalysts of the hydrogen evolution and oxidation reactions (HER and HOR) are of critical importance for the realization of future hydrogen economy. In order to make electrocatalysts economically competitive for large-scale applications, increasing attention has been devoted to developing noble metal-free HER and HOR electrocatalysts especially for alkaline electrolytes due to the promise of emerging hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cells. Herein, we report that interface engineering of Ni₃N and Ni results in a unique Ni₃N/Ni electrocatalyst which exhibits exceptional HER/HOR activities in aqueous electrolytes. A systematic electrochemical study was carried out to investigate the superior hydrogen electrochemistry catalyzed by Ni₃N/Ni, including nearly zero overpotential of catalytic onset, robust long-term durability, unity Faradaic efficiency, and excellent CO tolerance. Density functional theory computations were performed to aid the understanding of the electrochemical results and suggested that the real active sites are located at the interface between Ni₃N and Ni.

Recommended Citation

Song, Fuzhan, et al. "Interfacing Nickel Nitride and Nickel Boosts Both Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution and Oxidation Reactions." Nature Communications, vol. 9, 2018, pp. 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06728-7