High Performance Non-Noble-Metal Based Catalysts for Water and Seawater Electrolysis

Wu, Libo

High Performance Non-Noble-Metal Based Catalysts for Water and Seawater Electrolysis

Date

2022-05-10

Authors

Wu, Libo

Abstract

Water and seawater electrolysis to produce high caloric hydrogen gas is a sustainable and environmentally friendly energy-conversion technology that can be used to decrease the excessive consumption of fossil fuels. In general, water electrolysis is composed of two half reactions: oxygen evolution reaction (OER) on the anode and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) on the cathode. To make electrolysis process energy-efficient and cost-effective, catalysts, which can promote the sluggish kinetics of OER or HER by lowering their activation energy, are extensively studied. However, conventional noble-metal based catalysts such as Pt-/Ir-/Ru- composites suffer from high cost and scarce availability despite their high catalytic activity. Developing alternative non-noble-metal based catalysts with high catalytic activity and long-term durability is desirable but remains a challenge. At the same time, seawater electrolysis is attracting growing research attention due to its obvious advantages such as inexhaustible resource reserves, easy combination with ocean-related renewable-energy technologies and by-production of freshwater. However, the complicated composition of natural seawater can result in additional challenges for direct seawater electrolysis including competing chlorine evolution reaction, chloride corrosion, and catalyst poisoning. Addressing these challenges requires rational design of catalysts dedicated to seawater electrolysis. Here we apply various synthetic approaches to synthesize efficient non-noble-metal based catalysts for large-current-density water and seawater electrolysis, including tungsten-doped nickel iron layered double hydroxides (Ni-Fe-W LDH), boron-modified cobalt iron layered double hydroxides (B-Co2Fe LDH), and core-shell-structured CoPx@FeOOH for OER, heterogeneous metallic nickel and molybdenum nitride (Ni-MoN) for HER, and bimetallic phosphide (Ni2P-Fe2P) for both OER and HER. Rational design enables these novel catalysts to exhibit high catalytic activity, long-term durability, and enhanced chemical/structural stability to work well in both alkaline freshwater and seawater electrolytes. In these specific works, the effects of elemental doping, structural tuning, crystallinity adjustment, phase combination, electronic structure optimization, surface properties, corrosion resistance, and many other conditions on catalytic performance are investigated. Theoretical calculations are attempted to investigate the active sites and physical and chemical characterizations before and after catalytic reactions are conducted to reveal the transformation of these catalysts during electrolysis process.

Keywords

Water electrolysis, Catalysis, Seawater electrolysis

Citation

Portions of this document appear in: Ning, M.; Zhang, F.; Wu, L.; Xing, X.; Wang, D.; Song, S.; Zhou, Q.; Yu, L.; Bao, J.; Chen, S.; Ren, Z., Boosting Efficient Alkaline Freshwater and Seawater Electrolysis via Electrochemical Reconstruction (submitted); and in: Zhang, F.;Liu, Y.; Wu, L.; Ning, M.; Song, S.; Xiao, X.; Hadjiev, V.; Fan, D.; Wang, D.; Yu, L.; Ren, Z.; Chen, S., Efficient Alkaline Seawater Oxidation by a Three-dimensional Core-shell Dendritic NiCo@NiFe Layered Double Hydroxide Electrode (submitted); and in: Wu, L.; Zhang, F.; Song, S.; Ning, M.; Zhu, Q.; Zhou, J.; Gao, G.; Chen, Z.; Zhou, Q.; Xing, X.; Tong, T.; Yao, Y.; Bao, J.; Yu, L.; Chen, S.; Ren, Z., Efficient Alkaline Water/Seawater Hydrogen Evolution by a Nanorod-nanoparticle-structured Ni-MoN Catalyst with Fast Water-dissociation Kinetics. Advanced Materials DOI: 10.1002/adma.202201774; and in: Wu, L.; Yu, L.; McElhenny, B.; Xing, X.; Luo, D.; Zhang, F.; Bao, J.; Chen, S.; Ren, Z., Rational Design of Core-shell-structured CoPx@FeOOH for Efficient Seawater Electrolysis. Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 2021, 294, 120256; and in: Ning, M.; Wu, L.; Zhang, F.; Wang, D.; Song, S.; Tong, T.; Bao, J.; Chen, S.; Yu, L.; Ren, Z., One-step Spontaneous Growth of Nife Layered Double Hydroxide at Room Temperature for Seawater Oxygen Evolution. Materials Today Physics 2021, 19, 100419; and in: Wu, L.; Yu, L.; Zhu, Q.; McElhenny, B.; Zhang, F.; Wu, C.; Xing, X.; Bao, J.; Chen, S.; Ren, Z., Boron-modified Cobalt Iron Layered Double Hydroxides for High Efficiency Seawater Oxidation. Nano Energy 2021, 83, 105838. 186; and in: Zhang, F.; Yu, L.; Wu, L.; Luo, D.; Ren, Z., Rational Design of Oxygen Evolution Reaction Catalysts for Seawater Electrolysis. Trends in Chemistry 2021, 3 (6), 485-498; and in: Wu, L.; Yu, L.; Zhang, F.; McElhenny, B.; Luo, D.; Karim, A.; Chen, S.; Ren, Z., Heterogeneous Bimetallic Phosphide Ni 2P-Fe 2 P as an Efficient Bifunctional Catalyst for Water/Seawater Splitting. Advanced Functional Materials 2021, 31 (1), 2006484; and in: Yu, L.; Wu, L.; Song, S.; McElhenny, B.; Zhang, F.; Chen, S.; Ren, Z., Hydrogen Generation from Seawater Electrolysis Over a Sandwich-like NiCoN|Ni x P|NiCoN Microsheet Array Catalyst. ACS Energy Letters 2020, 5 (8), 2681-2689; and in: Yu, L.; Wu, L.; McElhenny, B.; Song, S.; Luo, D.; Zhang, F.; Yu, Y.; Chen, S.; Ren, Z., Ultrafast Room-Temperature Synthesis of Porous S-Doped Ni/Fe (Oxy)hydroxide Electrodes for Oxygen Evolution Catalysis in Seawater Splitting. Energy & Environmental Science 2020, 13 (10), 3439-3446; and in: Wu, L.; Yu, L.; Zhang, F.; Wang, D.; Luo, D.; Song, S.; Yuan, C.; Karim, A.; Chen, S.; Ren, Z., Facile Synthesis Of Nanoparticle-Stacked Tungsten-doped Nickel Iron Layered Double Hydroxide Nanosheets for Boosting Oxygen Evolution Reaction. Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2020, 8 (16), 8096-8103; and in: Wu, L.; Yu, L.; Xiao, X.; Zhang, F.; Song, S.; Chen, S.; Ren, Z., Recent Advances in Self-supported Layered Double Hydroxides for Oxygen Evolution Reaction. Research (Wash D C) 2020, 2020, 3976278.