Ultrathin High Surface Area Nickel Boride (NixB) Nanosheets as Highly Efficient Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Evolution |
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| Authors: | Justus Masa Ilya Sinev Hemma Mistry Edgar Ventosa Maria de la Mata Jordi Arbiol Martin Muhler Beatriz Roldan Cuenya Wolfgang Schuhmann |
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| Institution: | 1. Analytical Chemistry—Center for Electrochemical Sciences (CES), Ruhr Universit?t Bochum, Bochum, Germany;2. Department of Physics, Ruhr‐University Bochum, Bochum, Germany;3. Department of Physics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA;4. Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), CSIC, and The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain;5. ICREA, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain;6. Laboratory of Industrial Chemistry, Ruhr‐University Bochum, Bochum, Germany |
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| Abstract: | The overriding obstacle to mass production of hydrogen from water as the premium fuel for powering our planet is the frustratingly slow kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Additionally, inadequate understanding of the key barriers of the OER is a hindrance to insightful design of advanced OER catalysts. This study presents ultrathin amorphous high‐surface area nickel boride (Nix B) nanosheets as a low‐cost, very efficient and stable catalyst for the OER for electrochemical water splitting. The catalyst affords 10 mA cm?2 at 0.38 V overpotential during OER in 1.0 m KOH, reducing to only 0.28 V at 20 mA cm?2 when supported on nickel foam, which ranks it among the best reported nonprecious catalysts for oxygen evolution. Operando X‐ray absorption fine‐structure spectroscopy measurements reveal prevalence of NiOOH, as well as Ni‐B under OER conditions, owing to a Ni‐B core@nickel oxyhydroxide shell (Ni‐B@NiOx H) structure, and increase in disorder of the NiOx H layer, thus revealing important insight into the transient states of the catalyst during oxygen evolution. |
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| Keywords: | hydrogen evolution nickel boride oxygen evolution water oxidation water splitting XAFS |
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