Critical insights from alloys and composites of Ni-based electrocatalysts for HER on NaCl electrolyte

YSEA, NADIA B.; BENAVENTE LLORENTE, VICTORIA; LOIÁCONO, ANTONELLA; LAGUCIK MARQUEZ, LUCRECIA; DIAZ, LILIANA; LACCONI, GABRIELA I.; FRANCESCHINI, ESTEBAN A.

JOURNAL OF ALLOYS AND COMPOUNDS

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA

Año: 2022 vol. 915

0925-8388

t is critical to minimize the cost of materials and inputs used in hydrogen production and to create solutions for large-scale generation to reduce the cost of hydrogen produced. Seawater is a natural low-cost electrolyte with high Na+ and Cl- concentrations, among other soluble salts. Chloride ions allow a highly corrosive media to the materials typically used as electrodes. In this work, we have prepared and tested different Ni-based catalysts for hydrogen evolution in NaCl-containing solutions. NiMo alloy, Ni(WO3), and Ni(Nb2O5) composites are compared and studied from a critical point of view to find a viable solution for catalysis in seawater electrolysis. The NiMo catalyst presents a higher dissolution rate in the NaCl medium than all synthesized catalysts. Furthermore, Ni-based composites showed improved durability due to a decrease in dissolution, and an increase in catalytic activity when using Nb2O5 as the dispersed phase. The Ni(Nb2O5) electrodes presented the higher cataly