Electrochemical Preparation of a Ni-W-P Nanowire Array and Its Photoelectrocatalytic Activity for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Abstract

A Ni-W-P alloy nanowire array was fabricated in the nanochannels of an aluminum anodic oxide (AAO) membrane by electrodeposition. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to characterize the morphology of the Ni-W-P nanowire arrays. These nanowires had uniform diameters of about 100 nm and this accorded with the diameters of the holes. The length of these nanowires was about 20 μm. Cathodic polarization curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were used to study the electrocatalytic activity of the electrodeposited Ni-W-P alloy for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The results clearly showed that the Ni-W-P alloy nanowire array electrodes had the highest electrocatalytic activity for the HER and the overpotential was lowered by 250 mV at 10 mA·cm - 2 compared with the as-electroplated Ni-W-P alloy.