Trace Rh Activates Surface Ni with Increased Local Charge for Efficient pH-Universal Hydrogen Generation

The unbefitting binding energy for H*/OH* with Ni sites greatly restrains the electrochemical activity of Ni for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, Ni nanograins incorporated with trace Rh (denoted as 3D RhNi) are synthesized through combining a facile ion-absorption and subsequent thermal reduction treatment, in which Rh increases the local charge density of Ni sites, dramatically accelerating the electrochemical kinetics of HER. Experimentally, the Rh–Ni catalyst with only 0.1 at. % Rh element exhibits superior HER activity among the reported Ni-based materials, whose overpotential is only 37 mV and 18 mV at 10 mA/cm2 in 1.0 M KOH and 0.5 M H2SO4, respectively. DFT calculations further identify that the resultant catalyst possesses appropriate intermediate binding energy in both acidic and alkaline conditions toward HER. This study provides a strategy to manipulate the local electronic structure for significantly improving the activity in surface catalysis.

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Publication Details

Journal
ACS Energy Letters
Published
2024-10-28
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.4c02650
Citations
9
Primary Topic
Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.92

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article

Trace Rh Activates Surface Ni with Increased Local Charge for Efficient pH-Universal Hydrogen Generation

Yao Lu, Xiangdong Yao, Qian Zhu, Xiangyan Hou et al.
9 citations
ACS Energy Letters
Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
0.92
article

Trace Rh Activates Surface Ni with Increased Local Charge for Efficient pH-Universal Hydrogen Generation

Yao Lu, Xiangdong Yao, Qian Zhu, Xiangyan Hou, Minmin Cai, Keke Huang, Hao Chen, Xiaofeng Wu, Shouhua Feng, Jia Yi, Yuan Zhang
article en
9 citations

Abstract

The unbefitting binding energy for H*/OH* with Ni sites greatly restrains the electrochemical activity of Ni for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, Ni nanograins incorporated with trace Rh (denoted as 3D RhNi) are synthesized through combining a facile ion-absorption and subsequent thermal reduction treatment, in which Rh increases the local charge density of Ni sites, dramatically accelerating the electrochemical kinetics of HER. Experimentally, the Rh–Ni catalyst with only 0.1 at. % Rh element exhibits superior HER activity among the reported Ni-based materials, whose overpotential is only 37 mV and 18 mV at 10 mA/cm2 in 1.0 M KOH and 0.5 M H2SO4, respectively. DFT calculations further identify that the resultant catalyst possesses appropriate intermediate binding energy in both acidic and alkaline conditions toward HER. This study provides a strategy to manipulate the local electronic structure for significantly improving the activity in surface catalysis.

ACS Energy LettersVol. 9(11)
Sun Yat-sen University (CN), Jilin University (CN), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics (CN), Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK), Jilin Medical University (CN), Chemical Synthesis Lab (SG), Nano Carbon (Poland) (PL), Zhejiang University of Technology (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Jilin Scientific and Technological Development Program
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 29%
Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
0.92
DOISourceOpenAlex
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