Issue 2, 2018

Chemical induced fragmentation of MOFs for highly efficient Ni-based hydrogen evolution catalysts

Abstract

A highly efficient catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) composed of Ni nanoparticles encapsulated in thin layers of N-doped carbon (Ni@NC) can be obtained by NH3 induced fragmentation of a Ni based MOF at mild temperature (450 °C). A mechanistic study shows that the high chemical reactivity of NH3 causes ammonolysis of the ligands and allows ligand removal well below their carbonization temperature. In conventional thermal decomposition in Ar, metal–ligand bond dissociation and ligand carbonization occurs in the same temperature region, resulting in a catalyst with high carbon content and much poorer HER performance. We further improve the HER performance by combining the NH3 induced fragmentation and destabilization of the Ni-MOF structure by low levels of Co substitution, which results in smaller, more uniform catalyst particles. Using the noble metal free HER catalyst, an overall solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 7.9% is achieved in an electrolyzer driven by a commercial polycrystalline solar cell with an efficiency of 12.9%.

Graphical abstract: Chemical induced fragmentation of MOFs for highly efficient Ni-based hydrogen evolution catalysts

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
23 Nov 2017
Accepted
04 Jan 2018
First published
04 Jan 2018

Nanoscale Horiz., 2018,3, 218-225

Chemical induced fragmentation of MOFs for highly efficient Ni-based hydrogen evolution catalysts

T. Wang, R. Jin, Y. Wu, J. Zheng and X. Li, Nanoscale Horiz., 2018, 3, 218 DOI: 10.1039/C7NH00193B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements