Taking Advantage of Potential Coincidence Region: Insights into Gas Production Behavior in Advanced Self-Activated Hydrazine-Assisted Alkaline Seawater Electrolysis.

Abstract

Water electrolysis assisted by hydrazine has emerged as a prospective energy conversion method for achieving efficient hydrogen generation. Due to the potential coincidence region (PCR) between the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the electro-oxidation of hydrazine, the hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR) offers distinct advantages in terms of strategy amalgamation, device architecture, and the broadening of application horizons. Herein, we report a bifunctional electrocatalyst of interfacial heterogeneous Fe2P/Co2P microspheres supported on Ni foam (FeCoP/NF). Benefiting from the strong interfacial coupling effect between Fe2P and Co2P and the three-dimensional microsphere structure, FeCoP/NF exhibits outstanding bifunctional electrocatalytic performance, achieving 10 mA cm-2 with low overpotentials of 10 and 203 mV for HER and HzOR, respectively. Utilizing FeCoP/NF for both electrodes in HzOR-assisted water electrolysis results in significantly reduced potentials of 820 mV for 1 A cm-2 in contrast to the electro-oxidation of alternative chemical substrates. The presence of a potential coincidence region makes the application of self-activated seawater electrolysis realistic. The gas production behavior at different current densities in this interesting hydrogen production system is discussed, and some rules that are distinguished from conventional water electrolysis are summarized. Furthermore, a new self-powered hydrogen production system with a direct hydrazine fuel cell, rechargeable Zn-hydrazine battery, and hydrazine-assisted seawater electrolysis is proposed, emphasizing the distinct benefits of HzOR and its potential role in electrochemical energy conversion technologies powered by renewable sources.