Flexible tungsten disulfide superstructure engineering for efficient alkaline hydrogen evolution in anion exchange membrane water electrolysers.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 38977693.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-50117-2 and PMC identifier 11231348.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Anion exchange membrane (AEM) water electrolysis employing non-precious metal electrocatalysts is a promising strategy for achieving sustainable hydrogen production. However, it still suffers from many challenges, including sluggish alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) kinetics, insufficient activity and limited lifetime of non-precious metal electrocatalysts for ampere-level-current-density alkaline HER. Here, we report an efficient alkaline HER strategy at industrial-level current density wherein a flexible WS<sub>2</sub> superstructure is designed to serve as the cathode catalyst for AEM water electrolysis. The superstructure features bond-free van der Waals interaction among the low Young's modulus nanosheets to ensure excellent mechanical flexibility, as well as a stepped edge defect structure of nanosheets to realize high catalytic activity and a favorable reaction interface micro-environment. The unique flexible WS<sub>2</sub> superstructure can effectively withstand the impact of high-density gas-liquid exchanges and facilitate mass transfer, endowing excellent long-term durability under industrial-scale current density. An AEM electrolyser containing this catalyst at the cathode exhibits a cell voltage of 1.70 V to deliver a constant catalytic current density of 1 A cm<sup>-2</sup> over 1000 h with a negligible decay rate of 9.67 μV h<sup>-1</sup>.