Effect of yttrium doping on the properties of Nickel-Iron multiphase heterostructures at high current conditions

Abstract

Transition metal selenides hold great promise for producing clean hydrogen energy from water electrolysis, but it is not clear how transition metal elements can improve the stability of catalyst performance at high current levels. This work presents the use of nickel foam (NF) as a hydrothermal selenium substrate for yttria-doped multiphase bifunctional catalysts (Y-MSex/NF; M = Ni, Fe). Under high current circumstances, the linked structure of nanosheets and nanoscale microspheres created by hydrothermal selenium enhanced the catalytic reaction area and demonstrated exceptional performance. The overpotentials of the catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) were 350 mV and 340 mV, respectively, at a current density of 1000 mA cm−2(j1000). Moreover, stable operation in 1.0 M potassium hydroxide at a current density of 100 mA cm−2for 50 h further demonstrated the good electrocatalytic stability. Demonstrate the potential of selenides doped with the rare earth element yttrium for total water decomposition applications.