Comparative Studies of Fe, Ni, Co and Their Bimetallic Nanoparticles for Electrochemical Water Oxidation

Authors

Maduraiveeran Govindhan, Department of Chemistry, Lakehead University, 955 Oliver Road, Thunder Bay, Ontario P7B 5E1, Canada;
Brennan Mao, Department of Chemistry, Lakehead University, 955 Oliver Road, Thunder Bay, Ontario P7B 5E1, Canada;
Aicheng Chen, Department of Chemistry, Lakehead University, 955 Oliver Road, Thunder Bay, Ontario P7B 5E1, Canada;Follow

Corresponding Author

Aicheng Chen(aicheng.chen@lakeheadu.ca)

Abstract

The design of efficient, durable, and earth-abundant electrocatalysts via environmentally compatible strategies for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a vital for energy conversion processes. Herein we report a facile approach for the fabrication of low-cost and earth abundant metal catalysts, including iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), CoNi, and CoFe nanoparticles (NPs) on titanium (Ti) substrates through a one-step electrochemical deposition. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectrocopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and electrochemical techniques were employed to characterize these nanoparticles. Our electrochemical results revealed that among the five synthesized nanomaterials, the Ti/Co electrode exhibited the highest electrocatalytic activity toward OER in 0.l mol·L^-1 KOH with a current density of 10.0 mA·cm^-2 at 0.70 V vs. Ag/AgCl. The optimized Ti/Co electrode exhibited a small overpotential (η) of 0.43 V at 10.0 mA·cm^-2 and a high mass activity of 105.7 A·g^-1 with a turnover frequency (TOF) value of 1.63×10^-3 s^-1, which are comparable to the values obtained with the state-of-the-art Pt/C and RuO₂ electrocatalysts. In addition, the durability of the optimized Ti/Co electrode was tested using a chronopotentiometric technique, which revealed that the developed electrocatalyst possessed good stability for OER in an alkaline solution. The high catalytic activity, high stability, earth abundance, cost-effectiveness, and easy scale-up for mass production make the Co nanoparticles, which were electrochemically deposited on a Ti substrate, promising for industrial water splitting

Graphical Abstract

Keywords

cobalt nanoparticle, electrochemical deposition, electrocatalyst, oxygen evolution reaction, energy conversion

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.13208/j.electrochem.161247

Publication Date

2017-04-28

Online Available Date

2017-03-22

Revised Date

2017-03-21

Received Date

2016-12-02

Recommended Citation

Maduraiveeran Govindhan, Brennan Mao, Aicheng Chen. Comparative Studies of Fe, Ni, Co and Their Bimetallic Nanoparticles for Electrochemical Water Oxidation[J]. Journal of Electrochemistry, 2017 , 23(2): 159-169.
DOI: 10.13208/j.electrochem.161247
Available at: https://jelectrochem.xmu.edu.cn/journal/vol23/iss2/6

References

[1] Govindhan M, Chen A. Novel cobalt quantum dot/graphene nanocomposites as highly efficient electrocatalysts for water splitting[J]. Nanoscale, 2016, 8(3): 1485-1492.

[2] Katsounaros I, Cherevko S, Zeradjanin A R, et al. Oxygen electrochemistry as a cornerstone for sustainable energy conversion[J]. Angewante Chemie International Edition, 2014, 53: 102 €“ 121.

[3] Liu Y L, Chen C C, Zhang N, et al. Research and application of key materials for sodium-ion batteries[J]. Journal of Electrochemistry, 2016, 22(5): 437-452.

[4] Pe´rez-Alonso F J, Ada´n C, Rojas S, et al. Ni/Fe electrodes prepared by electrodeposition method over different substrates for oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline medium[J]. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 2014, 39: 5204-5212.

[5] LeRoy R L, Stuart A K, Srinivasan S, et al. Ed: Industrial water electrolysis[B], The Electrochemical Society, (1978) p. 117.

[6] Walter M G, Warren E L, McKone J R, et al. Solar water splitting cells[J]. Chemical Review, 2010, 110: 6446-6473.

[7] Pu Z, Luo Y, Asiri A M, et al. Efficient electrochemical water splitting catalyzed by electrodeposited nickel diselenide nanoparticles based film[J]. ACS Applied Materials Interfaces, 2016, 8(7): 4718-4723.

[8] Bian W, Yang Z, Strasser P, et al. A CoFe₂O₄/graphene nanohybrid as an efficient bi-functional electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution[J]. Journal of Power Sources, 2014, 250: 196-203.

[9] Chen X. Mini-review: possible applications of scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) in characterizations of oxygen reduction reaction and oxygen evolution reaction[J]. Journal of Electrochemistry, 2016, 22(2): 113-122.

[10] Chao S, Geng M. 3,5-Diamino-1,2,4-triazole as a nitrogen precursor to synthesize highly efficient Co-N/C non-precious metal bifunctional catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction and oxygen evolution reaction[J]. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2016, 41(30): 12995-13004.

[11] Jiao F, Frei H. Nanostructured cobalt oxide clusters in mesoporous silica as efficient oxygen-evolving catalysts[J]. Angewante Chemie International Edition, 2009, 48: 1841-1844.

[12] Kanan M W, Nocera D G. In situ formation of an oxygen-evolving catalyst in neutral water containing phosphate and Co²⁺[J]. Science 2008, 321(5892): 1072-1075.

[13] Chen S, Thind S S, Chen A. Nanostructured materials for water splitting - state of the art and future needs: A mini-review[J], Electrochemistry Communications 2016, 63: 10€“17.

[14] McCrory C C L, Jung S, Ferrer I M, et al. Benchmarking hydrogen evolving reaction and oxygen evolving reaction electrocatalysts for solar water splitting devices[J], Journal of American Chemical Society 2015, 137(13): 4347-4357.

[15] Gao M -R, Cao X, Gao Q, et al. Nitrogen-doped graphene supported CoSe₂ nanobelt composite catalyst for efficient water oxidation[J]. ACS Nano, 2014, 8(4): 3970€“3978.

[16] Yang T, Dong W, Yang H, et al. Preparation and properties of binary oxides Co_xCr_1-xO_3/2 electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction[J]. Journal of Electrochemistry, 2015, 21(2): 187-192.

[17] Wang L, Lin C, Huang D, et al. A comparative study of composition and morphology effect of Ni_xCo_1€“x(OH)₂ on oxygen evolution/reduction reaction[J]. ACS Applied Materials Interfaces 2014, 6(13): 10172-10180.

[18] Chemelewski W D, Lee H -C, Lin J -F, et al. Amorphous FeOOH oxygen evolution reaction catalyst for photoelectrochemical water splitting[J]. Journal of American Chemical Society, 2014, 136(7): 2843-2850.

[19] Huang J, Xu Z, Li H, et al. Electrochemical studies of iron-doped nickel oxide electrode for oxygen evolution reaction[J]. Journal of Electrochemistry, 2006, 12(02): 154-158.

[20] Yeo B S, Bell A T, Enhanced activity of gold-supported cobalt oxide for the electrochemical evolution of oxygen[J]. Journal of American Chemical Society, 2011, 133: 5587-5593.

[21] Ling C, Zhou L Q, Jia H, First-principles study of crystalline CoWO₄ as oxygen evolution reaction catalyst[J]. RSC Advances, 2014, 4: 24692-24697.

[22] Wang J, Qiu T, Chen X, et al. Hierarchical hollow urchin-like NiCo₂O₄ nanomaterial as electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline medium[J]. Journal of Power Sources 2014, 268: 341-348.

[23] Doyle R L, Lyons M E G, Redox and Oxygen evolution electrocatalytic properties of Nafion and single-walled carbon nanotube/hydrous iron oxide composite films[J]. Electrocatalysis 2014, 5(4): 114-124.

[24] Mellsop S R, Gardiner A, Marshall A.T, et al. Electrocatalytic oxygen evolution on electrochemically deposited cobalt oxide films: comparison with thermally deposited films and effect of thermal treatment[J]. Electrocatalysis, 2015, 5(4): 445-455.

[25] Suryanto B H R, Lu X, Zhao C, Layer-by-layer assembly of transparent amorphous Co₃O₄ nanoparticles/graphene composite electrodes for sustained oxygen evolution reaction[J]. Journal of Material Chemistry A, 2013, 1: 12726-12731.

[26] Zhou X, Xia Z, Zhang Z, et al. One-step synthesis of multi-walled carbon nanotubes/ultra-thin Ni(OH)₂ nanoplate composite as efficient catalysts for water oxidation[J]. Journal of Material Chemistry A, 2014, 2: 11799-11806.

[27] Chen A, Chatterjee S, Nanomaterials based electrochemical sensors for biomedical applications[J]. Chemical Society Reviews 2013, 42: 5425-5438.

[28] Adhikari B R, Govindhan M, Chen A, Sensitive detection of acetaminophen with graphene-based electrochemical sensor[J], Electrochimica Acta, 2015, 162:198-204.

[29] Govindhan M, Chen A, Simultaneous synthesis of gold nanoparticle/graphene nanocomposite for enhanced oxygen reduction reaction[J]. Journal of Power Sources 2015, 274: 928-936.

[30] Yao Y, Xu C, Qin J, et al. Synthesis of Magnetic Cobalt Nanoparticles Anchored on Graphene Nanosheets and Catalytic Decomposition of Orange II[J], Industrial Engineering Chemistry Research, 2013, 52(49): 17341-17350.

[31] Chen A, Russa D J L, Miller B, Effect of the Iridium Oxide Thin Film on the Electrochemical Activity of Platinum Nanoparticles[J], Langmuir, 2004, 20: 9695-9702.

[32] Lyons M E G, Brandon M P A, Comparative study of the oxygen evolution reaction on oxidised nickel, cobalt and iron electrodes in base[J]. Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 2010, 641(1-2): 119-130.

[33] Han A, Chen H L, Sun Z. J, et al. High catalytic activity for water oxidation based on nanostructured nickel phosphide precursors[J]. Chemical Communications 2015, 51: 11626-11629.

[34] Liu M, Li J, Cobalt phosphide hollow polyhedron as efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts for the evolution reaction of hydrogen and oxygen[J]. ACS Applied Materials Interfaces, 2016, 8(3): 2158-2165.

[35] Li X, Han G Q, Liu Y. R, et al. NiSe@NiOOH coreˆ’shell hyacinth-like nanostructures on nickel foam synthesized by in situ electrochemical oxidation as an efficient electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction[J]. ACS Applied Materials Interfaces, 2016, 8(31): 20057-20066.

[36] Kauffman D R, Alfonso D, Tafen, D N, et al. Electrocatalytic oxygen evolution with an atomically precise nickel catalyst[J]. ACS Catalysis, 2016, 6(2): 1225-1234.

[37] Lu A, Peng D L, Chang F, et al. Composition- and structure-tunable gold€“cobalt nanoparticles and electrocatalytic synergy for oxygen evolution reaction[J]. ACS Applied Materials Interfaces, 2016, 8(31): 20082-20091.