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Nickel-carbonate nanowire array: An efficient and durable electrocatalyst for water oxidation under nearly neutral conditions

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Abstract

It is highly attractive but still remains a great challenge to develop an efficient electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction under nearly neutral conditions. In this work, we report the transformation of Ni3S2 nanowire array on nickel foam into the amorphous nickel carbonate nanowire array on nickel foam (NiCO3/NF). The resulting NiCO3/NF shows high electrocatalytic activity towards water oxidation and affords current density of 50 mA∙cm‒2 at overpotential of 395 mV in 1.0 mol∙L‒1 KHCO3. Moreover, this NiCO3/NF is also durable with a long-term electrochemical durability of 60 h. This catalyst electrode achieves a high turnover frequency of 0.21 mol O2∙s‒1 at the overpotential of 500 mV.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21575137), the Open Project of State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base for Nonmetal Composites and Functional Materials (No. 16kffk04) and the Key Lab of Process Analysis and Control of Sichuan Universities (No. 2016001). We also appreciate Hui Wang from the Analytical & Testing Center of Sichuan University for her help with SEM characterization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, 610068, China

    Yuyao Ji & Xiaoli Xiong

  2. College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, China

    Min Ma, Xuqiang Ji & Xuping Sun

  3. Key Lab of Process Analysis and Control of Sichuan Universities, Yibin University, Yibin, 44000, China

    Xiaoli Xiong

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  1. Yuyao Ji
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  2. Min Ma
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Correspondence to Xiaoli Xiong or Xuping Sun.

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Nickel-carbonate nanowire array: An efficient and durable electrocatalyst for water oxidation under nearly neutral conditions

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Ji, Y., Ma, M., Ji, X. et al. Nickel-carbonate nanowire array: An efficient and durable electrocatalyst for water oxidation under nearly neutral conditions. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng. 12, 467–472 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-018-1717-8

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