Fabrication of porous Ni-Co catalytic electrode with high performance in hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Porous Ni-Co alloy with low overpotential for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) were fabricated by dynamic hydrogen bubble template (DHBT) method, which has the potential of being used to obtain hydrogen energy efficiently and environmentally friendly. The porous Ni-Co alloy was prepared by one-step electrodeposition at different current density and electroplating time. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to observe the diverse morphology of the electrodes obtained by different conditions, while its catalytic activity for HER was investigated by electrochemical measurements. Results showed the positive correlation between active sites of micro-morphology of porous Ni-Co electrode and its catalytic performance for HER. Based on the results, current density of 250 A/dm2 and electroplating time of 120 s were chosen as the optimum conditions, with the overpotential of only 54 mV for HER. Additionally, the porous Ni-Co alloy electrode showed high catalytic stability with a small activity loss after 10 h chronopotentiometry stability test. With prominent electrochemical properties and facile preparation method, porous Ni-Co alloy electrode fabricated by DHBT has the potential of being widely applied in hydrogen evolution reaction.