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Carbon doping switching on the hydrogen adsorption activity of NiO for hydrogen evolution reaction

Author

Listed:
  • Tianyi Kou

    (University of California)

  • Mingpeng Chen

    (University of California)

  • Feng Wu

    (University of California)

  • Tyler J. Smart

    (University of California
    University of California)

  • Shanwen Wang

    (University of California)

  • Yishang Wu

    (University of Science and Technology of China)

  • Ying Zhang

    (Shandong University)

  • Shengtong Li

    (University of California)

  • Supriya Lall

    (University of California)

  • Zhonghua Zhang

    (Shandong University)

  • Yi-Sheng Liu

    (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

  • Jinghua Guo

    (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

  • Gongming Wang

    (University of Science and Technology of China)

  • Yuan Ping

    (University of California)

  • Yat Li

    (University of California)

Abstract

Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is more sluggish in alkaline than in acidic media because of the additional energy required for water dissociation. Numerous catalysts, including NiO, that offer active sites for water dissociation have been extensively investigated. Yet, the overall HER performance of NiO is still limited by lacking favorable H adsorption sites. Here we show a strategy to activate NiO through carbon doping, which creates under-coordinated Ni sites favorable for H adsorption. DFT calculations reveal that carbon dopant decreases the energy barrier of Heyrovsky step from 1.17 eV to 0.81 eV, suggesting the carbon also serves as a hot-spot for the dissociation of water molecules in water-alkali HER. As a result, the carbon doped NiO catalyst achieves an ultralow overpotential of 27 mV at 10 mA cm−2, and a low Tafel slope of 36 mV dec−1, representing the best performance among the state-of-the-art NiO catalysts.

Suggested Citation

  • Tianyi Kou & Mingpeng Chen & Feng Wu & Tyler J. Smart & Shanwen Wang & Yishang Wu & Ying Zhang & Shengtong Li & Supriya Lall & Zhonghua Zhang & Yi-Sheng Liu & Jinghua Guo & Gongming Wang & Yuan Ping &, 2020. "Carbon doping switching on the hydrogen adsorption activity of NiO for hydrogen evolution reaction," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-14462-2
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14462-2
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    Cited by:

    1. Hongming Sun & Zhenhua Yan & Caiying Tian & Cha Li & Xin Feng & Rong Huang & Yinghui Lan & Jing Chen & Cheng-Peng Li & Zhihong Zhang & Miao Du, 2022. "Bixbyite-type Ln2O3 as promoters of metallic Ni for alkaline electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Lei, Yuanting & Zhang, Lili & Zhou, Danni & Xiong, Chengli & Zhao, Yafei & Chen, Wenxing & Xiang, Xu & Shang, Huishan & Zhang, Bing, 2022. "Construction of interconnected NiO/CoFe alloy nanosheets for overall water splitting," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 459-468.
    3. Yilin Deng & Wei Lai & Bin Xu, 2020. "A Mini Review on Doped Nickel-Based Electrocatalysts for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-17, September.

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