Bimetallic Nano Electrocatalyst for HER in Alkaline Polymer Electrolysis

Abstract

Recent developments in alkaline membrane technology have led to the possibility of using anion-exchange membranes containing alkaline ions in water electrolysis. This technology has the potential of combining the advantage of non-precious catalysts of alkaline process, with the advantages of PEM electrolysis, e.g. fast power-up/power-down rates, low parasitic energy losses and low energy consumption, in other words consolidating the best of both technologies. Although the HER is a well-studied reaction, it continues to attract the attention of researchers for both practical applications and fundamental understanding. Ni and alloys of Ni (with Fe,Co,Mo) still represent the most suitable electrodes for HER un alkaline media , the differences in the kinetic rates for the HER on various electrode materials in alkaline environments have linked to variations in the hydrogen adsorption energy. Although this supposition is Kinetically viable, it is still puzzling as to why the HER activity on Pt and other catalysts shows a hundred-fold decrease in activity or why the reaction is more sensitive to the catalysts’ surface structure in alkaline media than in acids. In this study, bimetallic nano particles of NiFe and NiCo were fabricated by oleylamine polyol and co precipitation process , The process of oleylamine involves synthesis of metal-containing compounds in oleylamine. The oleylamine acts as both the solvent and reducing agent. While co precipitation method involves precipitation agent like NaoH to precipitate the metal based nitrates, Different synthesis conditions in terms of concentration, time and heating rate were studied. Structural characterization of produced nanoparticles was carried out using X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Electrochemical behavior of nanoparticles investigated using rotating disk electrode. the electrochemical characterization investigated the effect of catalyst composition on electrochemical behavior of the catalyst. Figure 1