The renaissance of long-lasting nickel–hydrogen gas (Ni–H2) battery by developing efficient, robust, and affordable hydrogen anode to replace Pt is particularly attractive for large-scale energy storage applications. Here, we demonstrate an extremely facile corrosion induced fabrication approach to achieve a self-supporting hydrogen evolution/oxidation reaction (HER/HOR) bifunctional nanosheet array electrode for Ni–H2 battery. The electrode is constituted by ultrafine Ru nanoparticles on Ni(OH)2 nanosheets grown on nickel foam. Experimental and theoretical calculation results reveal that the electrode with optimized geometric and electronic structures ensures the efficient and robust catalytic hydrogen activities. The fabricated Ni–H2 battery using the Ru–Ni(OH)2/NF anode with an industrial scale areal capacity of 16 mAh cm–2 demonstrates a high energy density, good rate capability and excellent durability without capacity decay over 1800 h. This study casts light on the development of low manufacturing cost and high performance bifunctional hydrogen catalytic electrodes for future hydrogen energy applications.
Aqueous nickel-hydrogen gas (Ni-H 2 ) batteries with excellent durability (>10,000 cycles) are important candidates for grid-scale energy storage but are hampered by the high-cost Pt electrode with limited performance. Herein, we report a low-cost nickel-molybdenum (NiMo) alloy as an efficient bifunctional hydrogen evolution and oxidation reaction (HER/ HOR) catalyst for Ni-H 2 batteries in alkaline electrolytes. The NiMo alloy demonstrates a high HOR mass-specific kinetic current of 28.8 mA mg −1 at 50 mV as well as a low HER overpotential of 45 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm −2 , which is better than most nonprecious metal catalysts. Furthermore, we apply a solid−liquid−gas management strategy to constitute a conductive, hydrophobic network of NiMo using multiwalled carbon nanotubes (NiMo-hydrophobic MWCNT) in the electrode to accelerate HER/HOR activities for much improved Ni-H 2 battery performance. As a result, Ni-H 2 cells based on the NiMo-hydrophobic MWCNT electrode show a high energy density of 118 Wh kg −1 and a low cost of only 67.5 $ kWh −1 . With the low cost, high energy density, excellent durability, and improved energy efficiency, the Ni-H 2 cells show great potential for practical grid-scale energy storage.
Non-noble metal-based electrocatalysts have attracted extensive interest due to their low-cost, earth-abundance, and highly efficient catalytic performance as alternatives to noble metal counterparts. However, conventional approaches to synthesize electrocatalysts can endure overlong synthesis time with throughput degradation. Here, we demonstrate an ultrafast thermal method to synthesize non-noble metal-based electrocatalysts for overall water splitting. The method can be extensively used for metal-based catalysts, including metal oxides, metal carbides, alloys, and their composites. Among them, we select two outstanding electrocatalysts as examples for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The hybrid structure of nickel oxides and molybdenum carbides on activated carbon felt (Ni–Mo@ACF) for HER shows remarkable catalytic activity with a low overpotential of 87 mV and an excellent durability for 48 h at a current density of 10 mA cm–2. The NiFe alloy nanosheets on activated carbon felt (NiFe@ACF) for OER show superb catalytic activity with a low overpotential of 270 mV and great durability for 48 h at a current density of 10 mA cm–2. Consequently, an overall water splitter assembled with Ni–Mo@ACF as the cathode and NiFe@ACF as the anode only requires a low cell voltage of 1.60 V to drive a current density of 10 mA cm–2 with excellent durability for 36 h, which is the best among non-noble metal-based electrocatalysts reported so far. This work offers an approach for the ultrafast and facile synthesis of non-noble metal-based electrocatalysts for water splitting and other applications.
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