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Nano Research 2017, 10(3): 814-825 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1335-z
Research Article | Issue | Published: 04 January 2017

Quaternary pyrite-structured nickel/cobalt phosphosulfide nanowires on carbon cloth as efficient and robust electrodes for water electrolysis

Show Author's Information Jiayuan Li,  Zhaoming Xia,  Xuemei Zhou,  Yuanbin Qin,  Yuanyuan Ma,  Yongquan Qu( )
Center for Applied Chemical Research Frontier Institute of Science and Technology, and State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials Xi'an Jiaotong University Xi'an 710049 China
Keywords:
heterogeneous catalysis, nanowire, water electrolysis, pyrite
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Li J, Xia Z, Zhou X, et al. Quaternary pyrite-structured nickel/cobalt phosphosulfide nanowires on carbon cloth as efficient and robust electrodes for water electrolysis. Nano Research, 2017, 10(3): 814-825. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1335-z
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

The strategy of element substitution is an effective way to tune the electronic structures of the active sites in catalysts, thereby leading to improvements in both the catalytic activity and stability. Herein, we design and synthesize pyrite-type nickel/phosphorus co-doped CoS2 nanowires on carbon cloth (NiCoPS/CC) as efficient and durable electrodes for water electrolysis. Introduction of nickel and phosphorus produced stepwise and superb enhancement of the performance of the electrodes in the hydrogen evolution reaction due to regulation of the electronic structures of the active sites of the catalyst and accelerated charge transfer over a wide pH range (0-14). The NiCoPS/CC electrodes also delivered a nearly undecayed catalytic current density of 10 mA·cm-2 at a low overpotential of 230 mV for oxygen evolution due to in situ formation of surficial Ni-Co oxo/hydroxide in 1.0 M KOH. Thus, the NiCoPS/CC electrodes gave rise to a catalytic current density of 10 mA·cm-2 for overall water splitting at potentials as low as 1.54 V during operation over 100 h in 1.0 M KOH with a Faradic efficiency of ~100%.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Quaternary pyrite-structured nickel/cobalt phosphosulfide nanowires on carbon cloth as efficient and robust electrodes for water electrolysis

Show Author's information Jiayuan Li, Zhaoming Xia, Xuemei Zhou, Yuanbin Qin, Yuanyuan Ma, Yongquan Qu( )
Center for Applied Chemical Research Frontier Institute of Science and Technology, and State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials Xi'an Jiaotong University Xi'an 710049 China

Abstract

The strategy of element substitution is an effective way to tune the electronic structures of the active sites in catalysts, thereby leading to improvements in both the catalytic activity and stability. Herein, we design and synthesize pyrite-type nickel/phosphorus co-doped CoS2 nanowires on carbon cloth (NiCoPS/CC) as efficient and durable electrodes for water electrolysis. Introduction of nickel and phosphorus produced stepwise and superb enhancement of the performance of the electrodes in the hydrogen evolution reaction due to regulation of the electronic structures of the active sites of the catalyst and accelerated charge transfer over a wide pH range (0-14). The NiCoPS/CC electrodes also delivered a nearly undecayed catalytic current density of 10 mA·cm-2 at a low overpotential of 230 mV for oxygen evolution due to in situ formation of surficial Ni-Co oxo/hydroxide in 1.0 M KOH. Thus, the NiCoPS/CC electrodes gave rise to a catalytic current density of 10 mA·cm-2 for overall water splitting at potentials as low as 1.54 V during operation over 100 h in 1.0 M KOH with a Faradic efficiency of ~100%.

Keywords: heterogeneous catalysis, nanowire, water electrolysis, pyrite

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 26 August 2016
Revised: 29 September 2016
Accepted: 14 October 2016
Published: 04 January 2017
Issue date: March 2017

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21401148), National 1000-Plan program and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. xjj2013102, xjj2013043, and xjj2014064).

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