Heazlewoodite, Ni3S2, is one of the most promising bifunctional electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline media due to its metallic conductivity and low...
It
is indispensable to explore earth-abundant and high-efficiency
transition-metal-oxide electrocatalysts toward the hydrogen evolution
reaction (HER). However, their catalytic performance is impeded by
the poor conductivity. Herein we rationally design and manufacture
sulfur-doped Fe2O3 nanosheet arrays grown on
iron foam (S-Fe2O3/IF) with enhanced HER performance
in alkaline media. The obtained catalyst exhibits a low overpotential
of 134 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm–2 with a small Tafel slope of 76 mV dec–1 and shows
an excellent long-term durability with barely any degradation for
50 h. The density functional theory calculation and experimental results
demonstrate that the sulfur anion could optimize adsorption free energies
of hydrogen/water and improve the intrinsic activity of Fe2O3. This work not only develops a catalyst with highly
efficient performance but also provides design guidance to rationally
manufacture an earth-abundant-element electrocatalyst for large-scale
water splitting to hydrogen.
Variations of a Kretschmann-structure-based Ag-indium tin oxide- (ITO-) Au surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor were explored to improve its sensitivity. The sensor structure was optimised, and its characteristics were studied through numerical simulations. The chip structure that comprised 20 nm Ag/30 nm ITO/10 nm Au yielded the best sensing performance, wherein the angular sensitivity could reach 197.6° RIU−1 and the figure of merit was 43.4 RIU−1. These performance parameters are nearly three times higher than those of Ag/Au bimetallic resonance sensors. Furthermore, an adhesive Cr layer and two-dimensional graphene were incorporated into this sensor structure to explore their impact on the performance. The results demonstrated that the Cr layer significantly weakened the sensor performance, whereas graphene did not produce the expected enhancement effect on this structure. If simply adding a layer to a Au/Ag sensor can produce a three-fold improvement in its performance, then its economic and scientific benefits are potentially significant and widespread.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.