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An electrocatalyst with anti-oxidized capability for overall water splitting

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Abstract

An anti-oxidized NiS2 electrocatalyst with improved catalytic activity was developed using a Fe-induced conversion strategy. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveals that betatopic Ni species with high valence states are present within the Fe-NiS2 matrix and relatively less oxidized layers exist on the catalyst’s surface, indicating its greatly enhanced anti-oxidized capability. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the Ni and Fe sites on the Fe-NiS2 catalyst surface possess strong adsorption capacity toward hydroxyl ions compared with the Ni sites on NiS2. Benefiting from its unique microstructure and modulated electronic structure due to the effects of iron species, the Fe-NiS2 catalyst prepared on carbon fiber delivers a remarkably enhanced catalytic activity and superior long-life durability for overall water splitting. The present results provide an efficient strategy for the design and configuration of anti-oxidation catalysts, especially for energy storage and catalysis.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21522601, U1508201, and 21361162004), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2016YFB0101201), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. DUT17LAB18).

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Author notes

  1. Chang Yu, Huawei Huang and Si Zhou contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Lab of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemical Engineering, Liaoning Key Lab for Energy Materials and Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Chang Yu, Huawei Huang, Xiaotong Han, Changtai Zhao, Juan Yang, Shaofeng Li, Wei Guo, Bowen An & Jieshan Qiu

  2. Key Laboratory of Materials Modification by Laser, Ion and Electron Beams (Ministry of Education), Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Si Zhou & Jijun Zhao

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  1. Chang Yu
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  2. Huawei Huang
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Correspondence to Jieshan Qiu.

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Yu, C., Huang, H., Zhou, S. et al. An electrocatalyst with anti-oxidized capability for overall water splitting. Nano Res. 11, 3411–3418 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1964-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1964-x

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