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Cited by 1,333Electrocatalysts for Energy ConversionCO2 Reduction Techniques and CatalystsAdvanced Photocatalysis Techniques

Non-noble metal-nitride based electrocatalysts for high-performance alkaline seawater electrolysis

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Yu, Luo, Zhu, Qing, Song, Shaowei, McElhenny, Brian, Wang, Dezhi, Wu, Chunzheng, Qin, Zhaojun, Bao, Jiming +3 more·2019·Nature Communications
DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-13092-7PMC PMC6841982
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Abstract

Seawater is one of the most abundant natural resources on our planet. Electrolysis of seawater is not only a promising approach to produce clean hydrogen energy, but also of great significance to seawater desalination. The implementation of seawater electrolysis requires robust and efficient electrocatalysts that can sustain seawater splitting without chloride corrosion, especially for the anode. Here we report a three-dimensional core-shell metal-nitride catalyst consisting of NiFeN nanoparticles uniformly decorated on NiMoN nanorods supported on Ni foam, which serves as an eminently active and durable oxygen evolution reaction catalyst for alkaline seawater electrolysis. Combined with an efficient hydrogen evolution reaction catalyst of NiMoN nanorods, we have achieved the industrially required current densities of 500 and 1000 mA cm−2 at record low voltages of 1.608 and 1.709 V, respectively, for overall alkaline seawater splitting at 60 °C. This discovery significantly advances the development of seawater electrolysis for large-scale hydrogen production.

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  • Highly active OER electrocatalysts are required to generate large current densities (e.g., 500 mA cm−2) at overpotentials well below that required for hypochlorite formation.

    “This reaction requires highly active OER electro catalysts to generate large current densities (e.g. 500 mA cm− 2) at overpotentials well below that required for hypochlorite formation [15, 16].”

    From Wood aerogel-derived sandwich-like layered nanoelectrodes for alkaline overall seawater electrosplitting (2021) · cites this paper as [15]

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Authors
Yu, L., Zhu, Q., Song, S., McElhenny, B., Wang, D., Wu, C., Qin, Z., Bao, J., Yu, Y., Chen, S., & Ren, Z.
Affiliations
  • Central China Normal University (CN)
  • University of Houston (US)
Corresponding author
  • Yu, Ying
  • Chen, Shuo
  • Ren, Zhifeng
ORCID
Venue
Nature Communications
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2019-11-08
Volume
10
Issue
1
Pages
5106-5106
ISSN
2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1038/s41467-019-13092-7
PMC
PMC6841982
OpenAlex
W2989011156
Cited by
1,333
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 116 · 2025: 224 · 2024: 281 · 2023: 249 · 2022: 215 · 2021: 181 · 2020: 66 · 2019: 1
FWCI
24.63
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Welch Foundation (E‐1728)
  • Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (51872108, 21573085)
  • Central China Normal University (CCNU18TS034)
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 › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques
Keywords
seawater electrolysis, alkaline water electrolysis, oxygen evolution reaction, hydrogen evolution reaction, core-shell catalysts, seawater desalination, hydrogen production, chloride corrosion resistance, anode catalysts

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