氢气是一种能量密度高,可完全燃烧的清洁能源.发展绿色制氢技术对于解决全球环境污染,二氧化碳排放等环境问题具有重要意义.电化学水分解被认为是一种清洁高效的制氢手段,可自恰于可再生能源的波动性,具有效率高、响应快、氢气纯度高等优点.然而,由于电化学反应过电位大及动力学缓慢的原因,驱动电化学水分解的能量消耗巨大.因此,开发高效稳定的双功能电解水催化剂对于制氢和减少能源消耗至关重要.研究表明,催化剂催化活性中心和载体之间的电荷转移策略是调节催化剂局部电子结构,提升电催化反应性能的有效手段.本文利用简单的电化学循环伏安法在电化学反应池中将微量的Pt锚定到含缺陷的NiFe LDHs载体上.通过调节循环伏安曲线圈数,制备了一系列的PtFeNi合金/NiFe LDHs催化剂.由于NiFe LDHs载体缺陷位点周围的不饱和配位结构,Pt原子容易被缺陷捕获锚定形成成核位点,同时NiFe LDHs中缺陷位点周围的Fe,Ni原子更容易被电化学还原,与被缺陷捕获的Pt原子原位结合形成PtFeNi合金纳米粒子,最终形成PtFeNi合金/NiFe LDHs催化剂.通过对催化剂结构和表面价态的分析,构建了相应的模型催化剂.理论计算结果表明,PtFeNi合金纳米粒子和NiFe LDHs载体之间存在电荷转移再分布现象,优化了析氢反应(HER)和析氧反应(OER)中间体的吸附,可以提高HER和OER的电催化活性.实验结果表明,PtFeNi合金/NiFe LDHs异质结构催化剂分别表现出超高的OER和HER双功能催化活性.在100 mA cm-2电流密度下,HER的过电位仅为81 mV,优于商业化的Pt/C催化剂,同时OER的过电位仅为243 mV,优于商业化的IrO2和大多数LDHs电催化剂,且该催化剂都能稳定运行24 h.两电极碱性电解槽测试表明,只需要1.495和1.578 V电压就可分别达到10和100 mA cm-2的电流密度,快速产生氢气和氧气.因此,PtFeNi合金/NiFe LDHs催化剂在碱性条件电解水制氢方面具有非常好的发展前景.同时,本文不但展示了一种独特的缺陷锚定合金纳米粒子,构建纳米异质结催化剂的方法,且发现合金纳米粒子和缺陷载体之间存在电荷转移再分布现象,能够优化电催化反应中间体的吸附,极大地提升电催化反应性能.
Efficient and stable bifunctional electrocatalysts for water splitting is essential for producing hydro-gen and alleviating huge energy consumption.Meanwhile,charge transfer engineering is an efficient approach to modulate the localized electronic properties of catalysts and tune the electrocatalytic performance.Herein,we tactfully fabricate PtFeNi alloys/NiFe layered double hydroxides (LDHs)heterostructure by an easily electrochemical way with a small amount of Pt.The experimental and theoretical results unravel that the charge transfer on the alloy clusters modulated by the defective substrates (NiFe LDHs),which synergistically optimizes the adsorption energy of the reaction inter-mediates.The electrocatalyst exhibits an ultra-low overpotential of 81 and 243 mV at the current density of 100 mA cm-2 for hydrogen evolution and oxygen evolution,respectively.Furthermore,the overall water splitting indicates that PtFeNi alloys/NiFe LDHs presents an ultra-low overpotential of 265 and 406 mV to reach the current density of 10 and 300 mA cm-2,respectively.It proves that the PtFeNi alloys/NiFe LDHs catalyst is an excellent dual-function electrocatalyst for water splitting and promising for industrialization.This work provides a new electrochemical approach to construct the alloy heterostructure.The prepared heterostructures act as an ideal platform to investigate the charge re-distribution behavior and to improve the electrocatalytic activity.