Recent development of nickel based chalcogenides for hydrogen generation

• Published in: Materials today : proceedings Vol. 73; pp. 316 - 322
• Main Authors: M., Sudeep, Vijay Rajyaguru, Yashesh, Kumar Rastogi, Chandresh, MP, Sham Aan, M., Sridharan, Khosla, Ajit, C., Manjunatha
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 2023
• Subjects: Chalcogenides; Electrocatalyst; Hydrogen economy; Nanostructures; Water splitting; Chalcogenides; Electrocatalyst; Water splitting; Hydrogen economy; Nanostructures
• ISSN: 2214-7853; 2214-7853
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matpr.2022.10.244

Hydrogen stands out as a clean energy carrier considering future energy systems, and is being given significant attention as legislative priority. A cleaner, safer, efficient and quicker technique for bulk production of pure hydrogen is electrochemical water splitting. Unfortunately, the associated loss of energy (as overpotential) and electrode material prices have made this technique prohibitively expensive, making it impossible for it to replace the dominant industrial hydrogen production methods. Therefore, design of electrocatalysts for electrolysis of water is considered to be of utmost significance by the scientific community. The two half cell processes, i.e., the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), are frequently studied using precious metals. Nonetheless, the high price and inadequate abundance of precious metals prevent their widespread use. On the other hand, transition metal based electrocatalysts have excellent electrical conductivity and electrocatalytic activity, . Due to their remarkable physical and chemical characteristics, nickel-based chalcogenides (NiSe, NiS, etc.) are considered as great alternatives to precious metal catalysts. Non-precious metal chalcogenides have been demonstrated to be good for catalysing HER in acidic, neutral as well as alkaline media. The chalcogenides of different metals are the subject of a few review articles. However, there are limited summaries on the development of Ni chalcogenides for electrocatalysis in the literature. Therefore, the focus of this study is solely on describing the current status of nickel chalcogenide electrocatalysts for hydrogen production by water electrolysis.