A New Member of Electrocatalysts Based on Nickel Metaphosphate Nanocrystals for Efficient Water Oxidation.

Huang, Jianwen; Sun, Yinghui; Zhang, Yadong; Zou, Guifu; Yan, Chaoyi; Cong, Shan; Lei, Tianyu; Dai, Xiao et al. · Adv Mater · 2018

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

High-performance electrocatalysts are desired for electrochemical energy conversion, especially in the field of water splitting. Here, a new member of phosphate electrocatalysts, nickel metaphosphate (Ni<sub>2</sub> P<sub>4</sub> O<sub>12</sub> ) nanocrystals, is reported, exhibiting low overpotential of 270 mV to generate the current density of 10 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> and a superior catalytic durability of 100 h. It is worth noting that Ni<sub>2</sub> P<sub>4</sub> O<sub>12</sub> electrocatalyst has remarkable oxygen evolution performance operating in basic media. Further experimental and theoretical analyses demonstrate that N dopant boosts the catalytic performance of Ni<sub>2</sub> P<sub>4</sub> O<sub>12</sub> due to optimizing the surface electronic structure for better charge transfer and decreasing the adsorption energy for the oxygenic intermediates.