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Research Article

Carbon-encapsulated heazlewoodite nanoparticles as highly efficient and durable electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reactions

Mohammad Al-Mamun1Huajie Yin1Porun Liu1Xintai Su1,2Haimin Zhang3Huagui Yang1Dan Wang1Zhiyong Tang1Yun Wang1 ( )Huijun Zhao1,3( )
Centre for Clean Environment and EnergyGriffith UniversityGold Coast Campus QLD4222Australia
Ministry Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Fine Chemicals, College of Chemistry and Chemical EngineeringXinjiang UniversityUrumqi830046China
Centre for Environmental and Energy Nanomaterials, Institute of Solid State PhysicsChinese Academy of SciencesHefei230031China
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Abstract

The activity and durability of electrocatalysts are important factors in their practical applications, such as electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reactions (OERs) used in water splitting cells and metal–air batteries. In this study, a novel electrocatalyst, comprising few-layered graphitic carbon (~5 atomic layers) encapsulated heazlewoodite (Ni3S2@C) nanoparticles (NPs), was designed and synthesized using a one-step solid phase pyrolysis method. In the OER test, the Ni3S2@C catalyst exhibited an overpotential of 298 mV at a current density of 10 mA·cm–2, a Tafel slope of 51.3 mV·dec–1, and charge transfer resistance of 22.0 Ω, which were better than those of benchmark RuO2 and most nickel-sulfide-based catalysts previously reported. This improved performance was ascribed to the high electronic conductivity of the graphitic carbon encapsulating layers. Moreover, the encapsulation of graphitic carbon layers provided superb stability without noticeable oxidation or depletion of Ni3S2 NPs within the nanocomposite. Therefore, the strategy introduced in this work can benefit the development of highly stable metal sulfide electrocatalysts for energy conversion and storage applications, without sacrificing electrocatalytic activity.

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Nano Research
Pages 3522-3533
Cite this article:
Al-Mamun M, Yin H, Liu P, et al. Carbon-encapsulated heazlewoodite nanoparticles as highly efficient and durable electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reactions. Nano Research, 2017, 10(10): 3522-3533. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1563-x

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Received: 23 January 2017
Revised: 23 February 2017
Accepted: 26 February 2017
Published: 08 June 2017
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017
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