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Well-dispersed NiCoS2 nanoparticles/rGO composite with a large specific surface area as an oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalyst

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Abstract

Developing efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts such as transition metal sulfides (TMSs) is of great importance to advance renewable hydrogen fuel toward further practical applications. Herein, NiCoS2 nanoparticles well decorated on double-sided N-doped reduced graphene oxide sheets (NiCoS2/rGO) are prepared from an Al-containing ternary NiCoAl-layered double hydroxide precursor (NiCoAl-LDH) grown on GO support as an OER electrocatalyst. The Al-confinement-assisted sulfurization, followed by selective acid treatment, endows the resulting NiCoS2/rGO composite with the advantages: well-dispersed NiCoS2 nanoparticles, dual-sided rGO support, as well as a large specific surface area of 119.4 m2·g–1 and meso-/macroporous size distribution. The NiCoS2/rGO electrocatalyst exhibits an overpotential of 273 mV at 10 mA·cm–2 and a good stability of 24 h, which outperform those of the counterparts of NiS2/rGO and CoS2/rGO. The results of electrochemical active surface area and electrochemical impedance spectra experimentally provide convincing rationales of the information of active sites and good conductivity, both underpin the enhanced electrocatalytic performances.

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摘要 (Chinese abstract)

开发高效析氧反应 (OER) 电催化剂 (如过渡金属硫化物) 对于推动可再生氢能源的进一步实际应用具有重要意义。本研究以氧化石墨烯 (GO) 载体上负载含铝三元镍钴铝层状双氢氧化物 (NiCoAl-LDH) 为前驱体, 制备得到负载于氮掺杂还原氧化石墨烯载体两侧的NiCoS2纳米颗粒 (NiCoS2/rGO) OER催化剂。借助非活性铝的限域作用及选择性酸处理后, 该复合材料具有以下优点: 分散性良好的NiCoS2纳米颗粒、双面负载的rGO载体、较大比表面积 (119.4 m2·g–1) 和介孔/大孔尺寸分布。该复合OER电催化剂在10 mA·cm–2时的过电位为273 mV, 并且24 h后保持良好循环稳定性, 表现出明显优于单组分NiS2/rGO和CoS2/rGO的OER性能。OER性能提高的原因在于材料具有较大的电化学活性面积与较低的电荷转移电阻.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.U1607128).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment and Safety Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan, 030051, China

    Duan Wang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China

    Yu-Xin Chang, Ya-Ru Li & Sai-Long Xu

  3. Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, School of Mechanical, Materials, Mechatronics and Biomedical Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, 2522, Australia

    Shi-Lin Zhang

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  1. Duan Wang
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Correspondence to Duan Wang or Sai-Long Xu.

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Wang, D., Chang, YX., Li, YR. et al. Well-dispersed NiCoS2 nanoparticles/rGO composite with a large specific surface area as an oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalyst. Rare Met. 40, 3156–3165 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-021-01733-0

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