First-principles study of the electronic and catalytic properties of nickel-antimony (Ni-Sb) alloy catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a vital half-reaction for water splitting to produce H2. Exploring efficient, affordably priced, and environmentally sustainable HER catalysts is necessary for the development of renewable energy conversion and storage technologies. Here, the HER catalytic activity of hexagonal NiSb(010), hexagonal NiSb(001), hexagonal NiSb(101), cubic Ni3Sb(100), cubic Ni3Sb(010), cubic Ni3Sb(101), orthorhombic Ni3Sb(010), and orthorhombic Ni3Sb(101), is systematically investigated by density functional theory methods. Based on the calculated surface energy, all the studied surfaces are stable. Subsequently, we further evaluate their HER activity by calculating Gibbs free energy of hydrogen adsorption (ΔG*H) and exchange current density (i0). The results show that hexagonal NiSb and orthorhombic Ni3Sb are expected to be promising HER catalysts in Ni-Sb alloys because their ΔG*H values are respectively −0.03 and 0.03 eV, and they have larger i0 values. The synergistic interaction between the metal atoms of Ni and Sb can effectively promote electron transfer between the catalyst and reaction species, which is clearly demonstrated by the electronic structure analysis, which also illustrates that such high catalytic activity can be attributed to it. This work is conducive to guiding the design of this kind of alloy electrocatalysts for HER.