Mass production of Nickel@Carbon nanoparticles attached on single-walled carbon nanotube networks as highly efficient water splitting electrocatalyst

Abstract

Herein, we develop a direct current arc discharge method which enables large-scale synthesis of nickel@carbon attached single-walled carbon nanotube networks as an electrocatalyst for highly efficient water splitting. Mass amount of Ni@C/SCN (～80 g) could be easily obtained. After optimization, the catalyst exhibits a superior performance of electrochemical water splitting, which allows a current density of 10 mA cm−2, with an overpotential of only 260 mV for OER and 198 mV for HER. The electrolyzer can achieve a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at 1.8 V.