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Nano Research 2020, 13(11): 3068-3074 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2974-7
Research Article | Issue | Published: 04 August 2020

Reaction environment self-modification on low-coordination Ni2+ octahedra atomic interface for superior electrocatalytic overall water splitting

Show Author's Information Kaian Sun1,2,  Lei Zhao1,  Lingyou Zeng1,  Shoujie Liu2,  Houyu Zhu3,  Yanpeng Li1,  Zheng Chen2,  Zewen Zhuang2,  Zhaoling Li4,  Zhi Liu1,  Dongwei Cao3,  Jinchong Zhao1,  Yunqi Liu1( ),  Yuan Pan1( ),  Chen Chen2( )
State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, College of Chemical Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
College of Science, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Textiles, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China
Keywords:
density functional theory, overall water splitting, high current density, atomic interface effect, reaction environment self-modification
Topics:
AnodesCathodesCoordination reactionsCost effectivenessElectrocatalystsHydrogen evolution reaction Oxygen evolution reactionTransition metals
Cite this article:
Sun K, Zhao L, Zeng L, et al. Reaction environment self-modification on low-coordination Ni2+ octahedra atomic interface for superior electrocatalytic overall water splitting. Nano Research, 2020, 13(11): 3068-3074. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2974-7
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Large scale synthesis of high-efficiency bifunctional electrocatalyst based on cost-effective and earth-abundant transition metal for overall water splitting in the alkaline environment is indispensable for renewable energy conversion. In this regard, meticulous design of active sites and probing their catalytic mechanism on both cathode and anode with different reaction environment at molecular- scale are vitally necessary. Herein, a coordination environment inheriting strategy is presented for designing low-coordination Ni2+ octahedra (L-Ni-8) atomic interface at a high concentration (4.6 at.%). Advanced spectroscopic techniques and theoretical calculations reveal that the self-matching electron delocalization and localization state at L-Ni-8 atomic interface enable an ideal reaction environment at both cathode and anode. To improve the efficiency of using the self-modification reaction environment at L-Ni-8, all of the structural features, including high atom economy, mass transfer, and electron transfer, are integrated together from atomic-scale to macro-scale. At high current density of 500 mA/cm2, the samples synthesized at gram-scale can deliver low hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) overpotentials of 262 and 348 mV, respectively.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Reaction environment self-modification on low-coordination Ni2+ octahedra atomic interface for superior electrocatalytic overall water splitting

Show Author's information Kaian Sun1,2, Lei Zhao1, Lingyou Zeng1, Shoujie Liu2, Houyu Zhu3, Yanpeng Li1, Zheng Chen2, Zewen Zhuang2, Zhaoling Li4, Zhi Liu1, Dongwei Cao3, Jinchong Zhao1, Yunqi Liu1( ), Yuan Pan1( ), Chen Chen2( )
State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, College of Chemical Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
College of Science, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Textiles, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China

Abstract

Large scale synthesis of high-efficiency bifunctional electrocatalyst based on cost-effective and earth-abundant transition metal for overall water splitting in the alkaline environment is indispensable for renewable energy conversion. In this regard, meticulous design of active sites and probing their catalytic mechanism on both cathode and anode with different reaction environment at molecular- scale are vitally necessary. Herein, a coordination environment inheriting strategy is presented for designing low-coordination Ni2+ octahedra (L-Ni-8) atomic interface at a high concentration (4.6 at.%). Advanced spectroscopic techniques and theoretical calculations reveal that the self-matching electron delocalization and localization state at L-Ni-8 atomic interface enable an ideal reaction environment at both cathode and anode. To improve the efficiency of using the self-modification reaction environment at L-Ni-8, all of the structural features, including high atom economy, mass transfer, and electron transfer, are integrated together from atomic-scale to macro-scale. At high current density of 500 mA/cm2, the samples synthesized at gram-scale can deliver low hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) overpotentials of 262 and 348 mV, respectively.

Keywords: density functional theory, overall water splitting, high current density, atomic interface effect, reaction environment self-modification

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 02 March 2020
Revised: 01 June 2020
Accepted: 06 July 2020
Published: 04 August 2020
Issue date: November 2020

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21676300), the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. ZR2018MB035), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. 19CX02008A and 16CX06007A), PetroChina Innovation Foundation (No. 2019D-5007-0401), Taishan Scholars Program of Shandong Province (No. tsqn201909065) and Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program.

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