B-doping-induced amorphization of LDH for large-current-density hydrogen evolution reaction

• Published in: Applied catalysis. B, Environmental Vol. 261; p. 118240
• Main Authors: Yang, Hongyuan, Chen, Ziliang, Guo, Peifang, Fei, Ben, Wu, Renbing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.02.2020; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Amorphization; Amorphization of crystalline LDH; B-doping; Catalysts; Cobalt; Current density; Doping; Electrochemistry; Electrolysis; HER catalyst; Hydrogen evolution reactions; Hydroxides; Large current density; Metal foams; Nickel; Platinum; Transition metals; Water splitting; Amorphization of crystalline LDH; Large current density; B-doping; HER catalyst
• ISSN: 0926-3373; 1873-3883
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2019.118240

B-doping-induced amorphization of crystalline layered double hydroxide supported on nickel foam could activate it as an extremely efficient HER catalyst, affording large current densities of 500 and 1000 mA cm–2 at overpotentials of only 286 and 381 mV, respectively. [Display omitted] •B-doping-induced amorphization of LDH was developed to activate catalytic performance.•Amorphous NiCo LDH/NF catalyst could afford large current densities at very small overpotentials.•The strategy of B-doping-induced amorphization is versatile. Developing a platinum-free hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalyst that can steadily drive a large current density is of great significance in a commercially electrochemical water splitting technology. Herein, we show that the B-doping-induced amorphization of crystalline layered double hydroxide (LDH) activates it as an extremely efficient HER catalyst. The amorphous B-incorporated nickel-cobalt LDH supported on the nickel foam (A-NiCo LDH/NF) can yield large current densities at small overpotentials (100 mA cm–2 at 151 mV, 500 mA cm–2 at 286 mV, and 1000 mA cm–2 at 381 mV) with high durability in alkaline medium even after 72 h, which is even better than commercial platinum. This work may provide a promising way for structure tuning of transition metal LDH to effectively boost HER efficiency towards practical water electrolysis.