Flexible Bifunctional Electrode for Alkaline Water Splitting with Long-Term Stability

Progress in electrochemical water-splitting devices as future renewable and clean energy systems requires the development of electrodes composed of efficient and earth-abundant bifunctional electrocatalysts. This study reveals a novel flexible and bifunctional electrode ( NiO@CNTR ) by hybridizing m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:ACS applied materials & interfaces 2024-03, Vol.16 (10), p.12339-12352
Main Authors: Ganguly, Abhijit, McGlynn, Ruairi J., Boies, Adam, Maguire, Paul, Mariotti, Davide, Chakrabarti, Supriya
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Energy, Environmental, and Catalysis Applications
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Summary:Progress in electrochemical water-splitting devices as future renewable and clean energy systems requires the development of electrodes composed of efficient and earth-abundant bifunctional electrocatalysts. This study reveals a novel flexible and bifunctional electrode ( NiO@CNTR ) by hybridizing macroscopically assembled carbon nanotube ribbons ( CNTRs ) and atmospheric plasma-synthesized NiO quantum dots (QDs) with varied loadings to demonstrate bifunctional electrocatalytic activity for stable and efficient overall water-splitting (OWS) applications. Comparative studies on the effect of different electrolytes, e.g., acid and alkaline, reveal a strong preference for alkaline electrolytes for the developed NiO@CNTR electrode, suggesting its bifunctionality for both HER and OER activities. Our proposed NiO@CNTR electrode demonstrates significantly enhanced overall catalytic performance in a two-electrode alkaline electrolyzer cell configuration by assembling the same electrode materials as both the anode and the cathode, with a remarkable long-standing stability retaining ∼100% of the initial current after a 100 h long OWS run, which is attributed to the “synergistic coupling” between NiO QD catalysts and the CNTR matrix. Interestingly, the developed electrode exhibits a cell potential (E 10) of only 1.81 V with significantly low NiO QD loading (83 μg/cm2) compared to other catalyst loading values reported in the literature. This study demonstrates a potential class of carbon-based electrodes with single-metal-based bifunctional catalysts that opens up a cost-effective and large-scale pathway for further development of catalysts and their loading engineering suitable for alkaline-based OWS applications and green hydrogen generation.
ISSN:1944-8244
1944-8252
DOI:10.1021/acsami.3c12944