Sekar Sankar, Kim Deuk Young, Lee Sejoon
Division of Physics & Semiconductor Science, Dongguk University-Seoul, Seoul 04620, Korea.
Quantum-functional Semiconductor Research Center, Dongguk University-Seoul, Seoul 04620, Korea.
Nanomaterials (Basel). 2020 Jul 15;10(7):1382. doi: 10.3390/nano10071382.
A sustainable and efficient electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is vital to realize green and clean hydrogen production technology. Herein, we synthesized the nanocomposites of activated carbon-anchored nickel oxide (AC-NiO) via fully green routes, and characterized their excellent OER performances. The AC-NiO nanocomposites were prepared by the facile sonication method using sonochemically prepared NiO nanoparticles and biomass-derived AC nanosponges. The nanocomposites exhibited an aggregated structure of the AC-NiO nanotablets with an average size of 40 nm. When using the nanotablets as an OER catalyst in 1 M KOH, the sample displayed superb electrocatalytic performances, i.e., a substantially low value of overpotential (320 mV at 10 mA/cm), a significantly small Tafel slope (49 mV/dec), and a good OER stability (4% decrease of overpotential after 10 h). These outstanding OER characteristics are considered as attributing to the synergetic effects from both the ample surface area of the electrochemically active NiO nanoparticles and the high electrical conductivity of the AC nanosponges. The results pronounce that the fully ecofriendly synthesized AC-NiO nanotablets can play a splendid role as high-performance electrocatalysts for future green energy technology.
一种用于析氧反应（OER）的可持续且高效的电催化剂对于实现绿色清洁的制氢技术至关重要。在此，我们通过完全绿色的路线合成了活性炭锚定氧化镍（AC-NiO）纳米复合材料，并表征了它们优异的OER性能。AC-NiO纳米复合材料是通过简便的超声法制备的，使用了超声化学制备的NiO纳米颗粒和生物质衍生的AC纳米海绵。该纳米复合材料呈现出AC-NiO纳米片的聚集结构，平均尺寸为40 nm。当将纳米片用作1 M KOH中的OER催化剂时，样品表现出优异的电催化性能，即过电位极低（在10 mA/cm²时为320 mV）、塔菲尔斜率显著小（49 mV/dec）以及良好的OER稳定性（10小时后过电位降低4%）。这些出色的OER特性被认为归因于电化学活性NiO纳米颗粒的充足表面积和AC纳米海绵的高电导率的协同效应。结果表明，完全环保合成的AC-NiO纳米片作为未来绿色能源技术的高性能电催化剂可发挥出色作用。
