Non-Noble Metal V-Doped Ni₃S₂ Electrocatalyst for Glycerol Oxidation Synergistic Coupling to Promote Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Hydrogen energy represents a novel energy source characterized by its diverse range of origins, high energy density, and absence of carbon emissions. Coupled hydrogen evolution (CHE) is to achieve efficient, energy-saving, and economical generation of hydrogen by constructing systems that promote synergistic interactions between multiple reaction steps in order to reduce energy consumption and optimize resource utilization. This study reports the design and preparation of a vanadium(V)-doped Ni3S2 (V-Ni3S2@NF) electrocatalyst on a nickel foam substrate. The electrocatalytic material exhibits excellent electrochemical performance when catalyzing the glycerol oxidation reaction (GOR) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Specifically, the electrode only needs to apply a voltage equivalent to the reversible hydrogen electrode potential (RHE) of 1.41 and 0.56 V when driving the current intensity of GOR and HER to 100 mA cm–2. In addition, the 0.15 V-Ni3S2@NF electrode material exhibits excellent stability characteristics under continuous operation conditions for 10 h. In conclusion, 0.15 V-Ni3S2@NF was employed as a bifunctional electrode material, and a comprehensive analysis of its performance in the context of GOR synergistically enhancing HER was conducted. For the conversion of glycerol to formate, the Faradaic efficiency (FE) consistently remains at a high level of over 85%. Similarly, in the hydrogen evolution reaction system, the FE of hydrogen production at the electrode consistently remains approximately 99%. The findings suggest that the 0.15 V-Ni3S2@NF electrode exhibits significant efficiency of energy conversion and selectivity during the processes of GOR and HER, and few side reactions occur to consume electrical energy.