Systematic design of superaerophobic nanotube-array electrode comprised of transition-metal sulfides for overall water splitting
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Great attention has been focused on the design of electrocatalysts to enable electrochemical water splitting—a technology that allows energy derived from renewable resources to be stored in readily accessible and non-polluting chemical fuels. Herein we report a bifunctional nanotube-array electrode for water splitting in alkaline electrolyte. The electrode requires the overpotentials of 58 mV and 184 mV for hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions respectively, meanwhile maintaining remarkable long-term durability. The prominent performance is due to the systematic optimization of chemical composition and geometric structure principally—that is, abundant electrocatalytic active sites, excellent conductivity of metallic 1T’ MoS 2, synergistic effects among iron, cobalt, nickel ions, and the superaerophobicity of electrode surface for fast mass transfer. The electrode is also demonstrated to function as anode and cathode, simultaneously, delivering 10 mA cm−2 at a cell voltage of 1.429 V. Our results demonstrate substantial improvement in the design of high-efficiency electrodes for water electrolysis.
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A hybrid nanotube array catalyst formed by Kirkendall cavitation of ternary Fe, Co, and Ni-based layered double hydroxide nanowire arrays exhibits superhydrophobicity: released bubbles <100 μm, bubble contact angle 173.1° ± 3.4°, and no adhesion force; this results in excellent hydrogen evolution performance and stability, almost identical to Pt/C, with morphology virtually unchanged after稳定性测试.
“Li and the co-workers [117] designed a hybrid nanotube array catalyst formed by Kirkendall cavitation of ternary Fe, Co, and Ni-based layered double hydroxide nanowire arrays, as shown in Fig. 13d. The electrode with nanotube arrays on the surface exhibits excellent superhydrophobicity: the diameter of the released bubbles is less than 100 μm, the bubble contact angle is as high as 173.1° ± 3.4°,”
From Advances in Surface/Interface Engineering of Under-Water Superaerophobic Electrodes for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction by Manipulating of Bubbles (2026) · cites this paper as [117]
Split into 2 atoms — 1 confirmed, 1 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe different bubble releasing behaviors of Co-NC-AF, Co-NC-CF, and Pt foil can be ascribed to their distinct surface wettability.
“The different bubble releasing behaviors of these electrodes can be ascribed to their distinct surface wettability.”
From Design of Aligned Porous Carbon Films with Single‐Atom Co–N–C Sites for High‐Current‐Density Hydrogen Generation (2021) · cites this paper as [48]
The Results sections on bubble release and under-electrolyte superaerophobicity (Figs. 2 and 4; page numbers unavailable) link differences in bubble release and adhesion to electrode wetting behavior. However, the paper examines FeCoNi-based electrodes and Ni foam, not Co-NC-AF, Co-NC-CF, or Pt foil, so it does not establish that explanation for the three electrodes named in the claim. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Li, H., Chen, S., Zhang, Y., Zhang, Q., Jia, X., Zhang, Q., Gu, L., Sun, X., Song, L., & Wang, X.
- Affiliations
- Tsinghua University (CN)
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- University of Virginia (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wang, Xun
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2018-06-22
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 2452-2452
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6014975
- OpenAlex
- W2808814933
- Cited by
- 613
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2026: 36 · 2025: 55 · 2024: 72 · 2023: 88 · 2022: 99 · 2021: 99 · 2020: 88 · 2019: 65 · 2018: 11
- FWCI
- 15.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (21431003, 21521091)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials › Supercapacitor Materials and Fabrication
- Keywords
- electrochemical water splitting, bifunctional electrocatalysts, transition metal sulfides, 1T-MoS2, superaerophobic surfaces, hydrogen evolution reaction, oxygen evolution reaction, alkaline electrolyte, mass transfer, electrode durability, water electrolysis
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