Discover the SciOpen Platform and Achieve Your Research Goals with Ease.
Search articles, authors, keywords, DOl and etc.
High performance and low-cost electrocatalysts for overall water splitting, i.e., catalyzing hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions with the same material, are of great importance for large-scale, renewable energy conversion processes. Here, we report an ultrafast (~ 7 ms) synthesis technique for transition metal chalcogenide nanoparticles assisted by high temperature treatment. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate that cobalt sulfide (~ 20 nm in diameter)@ few-layer graphene (~ 2 nm in thickness) core-shell nanoparticles embedded in RGO nanosheets exhibit remarkable bifunctional electrocatalytic activity and stability for overall water splitting, which is comparable to commercial 40 wt.% platinum/carbon (Pt/C) electrocatalysts. After 60 h of continuous operation, 10 mA·cm-2 water splitting current density can still be achieved at a low potential of ~ 1.77 V without any activity decay, which is among the most active for non-noble material based electrocatalysts. The presented study provides prospects in synthesizing highly efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts for large-scale energy conversion application via a simple yet efficient technique.
Larcher, D.; Tarascon, J. M. Towards greener and more sustainable batteries for electrical energy storage. Nat. Chem. 2015, 7, 19-29.
Liu, C.; Tang, J. Y.; Chen, H. M.; Liu, B.; Yang, P. D. A fully integrated nanosystem of semiconductor nanowires for direct solar water splitting. Nano Lett. 2013, 13, 2989-2992.
Dresselhaus, M. S.; Thomas, I. L. Alternative energy technologies. Nature 2001, 414, 332-337.
Li, W.; He, D.; Sheehan, S. W.; He, Y. M.; Thorne, J. E.; Yao, X. H.; Brudvig, G. W.; Wang, D. W. Comparison of heterogenized molecular and heterogeneous oxide catalysts for photoelectrochemical water oxidation. Energy Environ. Sci. 2016, 9, 1794-1802.
Yang, X. G.; Liu, R.; He, Y. M.; Thorne, J.; Zheng, Z.; Wang, D. W. Enabling practical electrocatalyst-assisted photoelectron-chemical water splitting with earth abundant materials. Nano Res. 2015, 8, 56-81.
Zheng, N. F.; Bu, X. H.; Vu, H.; Feng, P. Y. Open-framework chalcogenides as visible-light photocatalysts for hydrogen generation from water. Angew. Chem. 2005, 117, 5433-5437.
Zeng, M.; Li, Y. G. Recent advances in heterogeneous electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction. J. Mater. Chem. A 2015, 3, 14942-14962.
Li, X. M.; Hao, X. G.; Abudula, A.; Guan, G. Q. Nanostructured catalysts for electrochemical water splitting: Current state and prospects. J. Mater. Chem. A 2016, 4, 11973-12000.
Walter, M. G.; Warren, E. L.; McKone, J. R.; Boettcher, S. W.; Mi, Q. X.; Santori, E. A.; Lewis, N. S. Solar water splitting cells. Chem. Rev. 2010, 110, 6446-6473.
Lee, Y.; Suntivich, J.; May, K. J.; Perry, E. E.; Shao-Horn, Y. Synthesis and activities of rutile IrO2 and RuO2 nanoparticles for oxygen evolution in acid and alkaline solutions. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2012, 3, 399-404.
Zou, X. X.; Zhang, Y. Noble metal-free hydrogen evolution catalysts for water splitting. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2015, 44, 5148-5180.
Faber, M. S.; Jin, S. Earth-abundant inorganic electrocatalysts and their nanostructures for energy conversion applications. Energy Environ. Sci. 2014, 7, 3519-3542.
Wang, P. T.; Zhang, X.; Zhang, J.; Wan, S.; Guo, S. J.; Lu, G.; Yao, J. L.; Huang, X. Q. Precise tuning in platinum-nickel/nickel sulfide interface nanowires for synergistic hydrogen evolution catalysis. Nat. Commun. 2017, 8, 14580.
Li, H. Y.; Chen, S. M.; Jia, X. F.; Xu, B.; Lin, H. F.; Yang, H. Z.; Song, L.; Wang, X. Amorphous nickel-cobalt complexes hybridized with 1t-phase molybdenum disulfide via hydrazine-induced phase transformation for water splitting. Nat. Commun. 2017, 8, 15377.
Xu, S. M.; Chen, Y. N.; Li, Y. J.; Lu, A. J.; Yao, Y. G.; Dai, J. Q.; Wang, Y. B.; Liu, B. Y.; Lacey, S. D.; Pastel, G. R. et al. Universal, in situ transformation of bulky compounds into nanoscale catalysts by high-temperature pulse. Nano Lett. 2017, 17, 5817-5822.
Zhou, Y. C.; Leng, Y. H.; Zhou, W. J.; Huang, J. L.; Zhao, M. W.; Zhan, J.; Feng, C. H.; Tang, Z. H.; Chen, S. W.; Liu, H. Sulfur and nitrogen self-doped carbon nanosheets derived from peanut root nodules as high-efficiency non-metal electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction. Nano Energy 2015, 16, 357-366.
Brown, D. E.; Mahmood, M. N.; Man, M. C. M.; Turner, A. K. Preparation and characterization of low overvoltage transition metal alloy electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution in alkaline solutions. Electrochim. Acta 1984, 29, 1551-1556.
Wu, H. B.; Xia, B. Y.; Yu, L.; Yu, X. Y.; Lou, X. W. Porous molybdenum carbide nano-octahedrons synthesized via confined carburization in metal-organic frameworks for efficient hydrogen production. Nat. Commun. 2015, 6, 6512.
Xu, X. B.; Nosheen, F.; Wang, X. Ni-decorated molybdenum carbide hollow structure derived from carbon-coated metal-organic framework for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction. Chem. Mater. 2016, 28, 6313-6320.
Lu, Q. P.; Yu, Y. F.; Ma, Q. L.; Chen, B.; Zhang, H. 2D transition-metal-dichalcogenide-nanosheet-based composites for photocatalytic and electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reactions. Adv. Mater. 2016, 28, 1917-1933.
Chen, J. Z.; Wu, X. J.; Yin, L. S.; Li, B.; Hong, X.; Fan, Z. X.; Chen, B.; Xue, C.; Zhang, H. One-pot synthesis of CdS nanocrystals hybridized with single-layer transition-metal dichalcogenide nanosheets for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Angew. Chem. , Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 1210-1214.
Lukowski, M. A.; Daniel, A. S.; Meng, F.; Forticaux, A.; Li, L. S.; Jin, S. Enhanced hydrogen evolution catalysis from chemically exfoliated metallic MoS2 nanosheets. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 10274-10277.
Wang, H. T.; Lu, Z. Y.; Kong, D. S.; Sun, J.; Hymel, T. M.; Cui, Y. Electrochemical tuning of MoS2 nanoparticles on three-dimensional substrate for efficient hydrogen evolution. ACS Nano 2014, 8, 4940-4947.
Xie, J. F.; Zhang, H.; Li, S.; Wang, R. X.; Sun, X.; Zhou, M.; Zhou, J. F.; Lou, X. W.; Xie, Y. Defect-rich MoS2 ultrathin nanosheets with additional active edge sites for enhanced electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Adv. Mater. 2013, 25, 5807-5813.
Tan, Y. W.; Liu, P.; Chen, L. Y.; Cong, W. T.; Ito, Y.; Han, J. H.; Guo, X. W.; Tang, Z.; Fujita, T.; Hirata, A. et al. Monolayer MoS2 films supported by 3D nanoporous metals for high-efficiency electrocatalytic hydrogen production. Adv. Mater. 2014, 26, 8023-8028.
Duan, J. J.; Chen, S.; Chambers, B. A.; Andersson, G. G.; Qiao, S. Z. 3D WS2 nanolayers@heteroatom-doped graphene films as hydrogen evolution catalyst electrodes. Adv. Mater. 2015, 27, 4234-4241.
Voiry, D.; Yang, J.; Chhowalla, M. Recent strategies for improving the catalytic activity of 2D TMD nanosheets toward the hydrogen evolution reaction. Adv. Mater. 2016, 28, 6197-6206.
Voiry, D.; Fullon, R.; Yang, J.; de Carvalho Castro e Silva, C.; Kappera, R.; Bozkurt, I.; Kaplan, D.; Lagos, M. J.; Batson, P. E.; Gupta, G. et al. The role of electronic coupling between substrate and 2D MoS2 nanosheets in electrocatalytic production of hydrogen. Nat. Mater. 2016, 15, 1003-1009.
Miao, J. W.; Xiao, F. X.; Yang, H. B.; Khoo, S. Y.; Chen, J. Z.; Fan, Z. X.; Hsu, Y. Y.; Chen, H. M.; Zhang, H.; Liu, B. Hierarchical Ni-Mo-S nanosheets on carbon fiber cloth: A flexible electrode for efficient hydrogen generation in neutral electrolyte. Sci. Adv. 2015, 1, 1500259.
Ma, C. B.; Qi, X. Y.; Chen, B.; Bao, S. Y.; Yin, Z. Y.; Wu, X. J.; Luo, Z. M.; Wei, J.; Zhang, H. L.; Zhang, H. MoS2 nanoflower-decorated reduced graphene oxide paper for high-performance hydrogen evolution reaction. Nanoscale 2014, 6, 5624-5629.
Chen, Y. N.; Xu, S. M.; Li, Y. C.; Jacob, R. J.; Kuang, Y. D.; Liu, B. Y.; Wang, Y. L.; Pastel, G.; Salamanca-Riba, L. G.; Zachariah, M. R. et al. FeS2 nanoparticles embedded in reduced graphene oxide toward robust, high-performance electrocatalysts. Adv. Energy Mater. 2017, 7, 1700482.
Pi, Y. C.; Shao, Q.; Wang, P. T.; Lv, F.; Guo, S. J.; Guo, J.; Huang, X. Q. Trimetallic oxyhydroxide coralloids for efficient oxygen evolution electrocatalysis. Angew. Chem. 2017, 129, 4573-4577.
Yang, H. B.; Miao, J. W.; Hung, S. F.; Chen, J. Z.; Tao, H. B.; Wang, X. Z.; Zhang, L. P.; Chen, R.; Gao, J. J.; Chen, H. M. et al. Identification of catalytic sites for oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution in N-doped graphene materials: Development of highly efficient metal-free bifunctional electrocatalyst. Sci. Adv. 2016, 2, e1501122.
Zhang, J. T.; Zhao, Z. H.; Xia, Z. H.; Dai, L. M. A metal-free bifunctional electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2015, 10, 444-452.
Suntivich, J.; May, K. J.; Gasteiger, H. A.; Goodenough, J. B.; Shao-Horn, Y. A perovskite oxide optimized for oxygen evolution catalysis from molecular orbital principles. Science 2011, 334, 1383-1385.
Ma, T. Y.; Dai, S.; Jaroniec, M.; Qiao, S. Z. Metal-organic framework derived hybrid Co3O4-carbon porous nanowire arrays as reversible oxygen evolution electrodes. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 13925-13931.
Gong, M.; Li, Y. G.; Wang, H. L.; Liang, Y. Y.; Wu, J. Z.; Zhou, J. G.; Wang, J.; Regier, T.; Wei, F.; Dai, H. J. An advanced Ni-Fe layered double hydroxide electrocatalyst for water oxidation. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 8452-8455.
Cao, F. F.; Zhao, M. T.; Yu, Y. F.; Chen, B.; Huang, Y.; Yang, J.; Cao, X. H.; Lu, Q. P.; Zhang, X.; Zhang, Z. C. et al. Synthesis of two-dimensional CoS1.097/nitrogen-doped carbon nanocomposites using metal-organic framework nanosheets as precursors for supercapacitor application. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138, 6924-6927.
Xu, Y. Q.; Hao, Y. C.; Zhang, G. X.; Jin, X. Y.; Wang, L.; Lu, Z. Y.; Sun, X. M. One-step scalable production of Co1−XS/graphene nanocomposite as high-performance bifunctional electrocatalyst. Part. Part. Syst. Charact. 2016, 33, 569-575.
Gao, M. R.; Xu, Y. F.; Jiang, J.; Yu, S. H. Nanostructured metal chalcogenides: Synthesis, modification, and applications in energy conversion and storage devices. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2013, 42, 2986-3017.
Faber, M. S.; Dziedzic, R.; Lukowski, M. A.; Kaiser, N. S.; Ding, Q.; Jin, S. High-performance electrocatalysis using metallic cobalt pyrite (CoS2) micro- and nanostructures. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 10053-10061.
Kong, D. S.; Cha, J. J.; Wang, H. T.; Lee, H. R.; Cui, Y. First-row transition metal dichalcogenide catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction. Energy Environ. Sci. 2013, 6, 3553-3558.
Kong, D. S.; Wang, H. T.; Lu, Z. Y.; Cui, Y. CoSe2 Nanoparticles grown on carbon fiber paper: An efficient and stable electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 4897-4900.
Peng, S. J.; Li, L. L.; Han, X. P.; Sun, W. P.; Srinivasan, M.; Mhaisalkar, S. G.; Cheng, F. Y.; Yan, Q.; Chen, J.; Ramakrishna, S. Cobalt sulfide nanosheet/graphene/carbon nanotube nanocomposites as flexible electrodes for hydrogen evolution. Angew. Chem. , Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 12594-12599.
Cabán-Acevedo, M.; Stone, M. L.; Schmidt, J. R.; Thomas, J. G.; Ding, Q.; Chang, H. C.; Tsai, M. L.; He, J. H.; Jin, S. Efficient hydrogen evolution catalysis using ternary pyrite-type cobalt phosphosulphide. Nat. Mater. 2015, 14, 1245-1251.
Luo, Z. M.; Tan, C. L.; Zhang, X.; Chen, J. Z.; Cao, X. H.; Li, B.; Zong, Y.; Huang, L.; Huang, X.; Wang, L. H. et al. Preparation of cobalt sulfide nanoparticle-decorated nitrogen and sulfur Co-doped reduced graphene oxide aerogel used as a highly efficient electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction. Small 2016, 12, 5920-5926.
Sun, Y. J.; Liu, C.; Grauer, D. C.; Yano, J.; Long, J. R.; Yang, P. D.; Chang, C. J. Electrodeposited cobalt-sulfide catalyst for electrochemical and photoelectrochemical hydrogen generation from water. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 17699-17702.
Ito, Y.; Cong, W. T.; Fujita, T.; Tang, Z.; Chen, M. W. High catalytic activity of nitrogen and sulfur Co-doped nanoporous graphene in the hydrogen evolution reaction. Angew. Chem. , Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 2131-2136.
Wang, X. W.; Sun, G. Z.; Routh, P.; Kim, D. H.; Huang, W.; Chen, P. Heteroatom-doped graphene materials: Syntheses, properties and applications. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2014, 43, 7067-7098.
Chen, Y. N.; Egan, G. C.; Wan, J. Y.; Zhu, S. Z.; Jacob, R. J.; Zhou, W. B.; Dai, J. Q.; Wang, Y. B.; Danner, V. A.; Yao, Y. G. et al. Ultra-fast self-assembly and stabilization of reactive nanoparticles in reduced graphene oxide films. Nat. Commun. 2016, 7, 12332.
Chen, Y. N.; Li, Y. J.; Wang, Y. B.; Fu, K.; Danner, V. A.; Dai, J. Q.; Lacey, S. D.; Yao, Y. G.; Hu, L. B. Rapid, in situ synthesis of high capacity battery anodes through high temperature radiation-based thermal shock. Nano Lett. 2016, 16, 5553-5558.
Li, Y. J.; Chen, Y. N.; Nie, A. M.; Lu, A. J.; Jacob, R. J.; Gao, T. T.; Song, J. W.; Dai, J. Q.; Wan, J. Y.; Pastel, G. et al. In situ, fast, high-temperature synthesis of nickel nanoparticles in reduced graphene oxide matrix. Adv. Energy Mater. 2017, 7, 1601783.
Soler, J. M.; Artacho, E.; Gale, J. D.; García, A.; Junquera, J.; Ordejón, P.; Sánchez-Portal, D. The SIESTA method for ab initio order-N materials simulation. J. Phys. Condens. Matter 2002, 14, 2745-2779.
Dai, K.; Li, D. P.; Lu, L.; Liu, Q.; Lv, J. L.; Zhu, G. P. Facile synthesis of a reduced graphene oxide/cobalt sulfide hybrid and its electrochemical capacitance performance. RSC Adv. 2014, 4, 29216-29222.
Guo, D. H.; Shibuya, R.; Akiba, C.; Saji, S.; Kondo, T.; Nakamura, J. Active sites of nitrogen-doped carbon materials for oxygen reduction reaction clarified using model catalysts. Science 2016, 351, 361-365.
Wang, Z. Y.; Dong, Y. F.; Li, H. J.; Zhao, Z. B.; Wu, H. B.; Hao, C.; Liu, S. H.; Qiu, J. S.; Lou, X. W. Enhancing lithium-sulphur battery performance by strongly binding the discharge products on amino-functionalized reduced graphene oxide. Nat. Commun. 2014, 5, 5002.
Deng, J.; Ren, P. J.; Deng, D. H.; Bao, X. H. Enhanced electron penetration through an ultrathin graphene layer for highly efficient catalysis of the hydrogen evolution reaction. Angew. Chem. , Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 2100-2104.
Wang, H. T.; Lee, H. W.; Deng, Y.; Lu, Z. Y.; Hsu, P. C.; Liu, Y. Y.; Lin, D. C.; Cui, Y. Bifunctional non-noble metal oxide nanoparticle electrocatalysts through lithium-induced conversion for overall water splitting. Nat. Commun. 2015, 6, 7261.
Xia, B. Y.; Yan, Y.; Li, N.; Wu, H. B.; Lou, X. W.; Wang, X. A metal-organic framework-derived bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst. Nat. Energy 2016, 1, 15006.
Ledendecker, M.; Krick Calderón, S.; Papp, C.; Steinrück, H. P.; Antonietti, M.; Shalom, M. The synthesis of nanostructured Ni5P4 films and their use as a non-noble bifunctional electrocatalyst for full water splitting. Angew. Chem. , Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 12361-12365.
Deng, J.; Ren, P. J.; Deng, D. H.; Yu, L.; Yang, F.; Bao, X. H. Highly active and durable non-precious-metal catalysts encapsulated in carbon nanotubes for hydrogen evolution reaction. Energy Environ. Sci. 2014, 7, 1919-1923.
Morales-Guio, C. G.; Stern, L. A.; Hu, X. L. Nanostructured hydrotreating catalysts for electrochemical hydrogen evolution. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2014, 43, 6555-6569.
Zheng, Y.; Jiao, Y.; Zhu, Y. H.; Li, L. H.; Han, Y.; Chen, Y.; Du, A. J.; Jaroniec, M.; Qiao, S. Z. Hydrogen evolution by a metal-free electrocatalyst. Nat. Commun. 2014, 5, 3783.
de Chialvo, M. R. G.; Chialvo, A. C. Hydrogen evolution reaction: Analysis of the Volmer-Heyrovsky-Tafel mechanism with a generalized adsorption model. J. Electroanal. Chem. 1994, 372, 209-223.
Zheng, Y.; Jiao, Y.; Jaroniec, M.; Qiao, S. Z. Advancing the electrochemistry of the hydrogen-evolution reaction through combining experiment and theory. Angew. Chem. , Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 52-65.
Hammer, B.; Nørskov, J. K. Theoretical surface science and catalysis-calculations and concepts. Adv. Catal. 2000, 45, 71-129.
Nørskov, J. K.; Bligaard, T.; Logadottir, A.; Kitchin, J. R.; Chen, J. G.; Pandelov, S.; Stimming, U. Trends in the exchange current for hydrogen evolution. J. Electrochem. Soc. 2005, 152, J23-J26.
Hammer, B.; Norskov, J. K. Why gold is the noblest of all the metals. Nature 1995, 376, 238-240.