Issue 24, 2019

Monitoring compositional changes in Ni(OH)2 electrocatalysts employed in the oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract

Electrochemical water splitting to generate hydrogen has been identified as a possible solution to the storage of intermittent renewable energy. However there are still challenges remaining in the development of stable electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution half-reaction. Here we investigate the effects that the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has on an electrodeposited Ni(OH)2 catalyst operated under alkaline conditions. The electrocatalyst was characterised by established methods including cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy both before and after the OER to identify changes that may have occurred in the structure and/or composition of the catalyst. In addition, synchrotron X-ray absorption near edge structure mapping was used to generate spatially resolved maps of the species present within the Ni(OH)2 catalyst and how they change in a heterogeneous manner into a NiO species after the OER. When compared to the morphological data it suggests that changes in the morphology after the OER can be correlated to the formation of NiO within the newly formed clusters that were generated across the electrocatalyst.

Graphical abstract: Monitoring compositional changes in Ni(OH)2 electrocatalysts employed in the oxygen evolution reaction

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
25 Қыр. 2019
Accepted
29 Қаз. 2019
First published
30 Қаз. 2019

Analyst, 2019,144, 7318-7325

Monitoring compositional changes in Ni(OH)2 electrocatalysts employed in the oxygen evolution reaction

R. Agoston, M. Abu Sayeed, M. W. M. Jones, M. D. de Jonge and A. P. O'Mullane, Analyst, 2019, 144, 7318 DOI: 10.1039/C9AN01905G

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements