Issue 10, 2021

Hierarchical Cu2S hollow nanowire arrays for highly efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Exploiting highly active and low-cost electrocatalysts based on earth-abundant elements for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is an extremely desirable, but challenging task. Herein, we present a facile and economical two-step synthetic procedure to fabricate hierarchical Cu2S hollow nanowire arrays implanted tightly on copper foam (Cu2S HNAs-CF). Owing to the unique hierarchical hollow nanowire array nanostructure of a large surface area, copious active sites, easy mass/transport ability, and high conductivity, the as-synthesized hierarchical Cu2S HNAs-CF electrode (as a self-supported electrode) shows excellent electrochemical HER activity with a low overpotential of 125 mV @ 100 mA cm−2 in an alkaline electrolyte, and ranks as the top HER electrocatalyst reported. Upon coupling with the ordered macroporous RuO2 (OMS-RuO2), the Cu2S HNAs-CF‖OMS-RuO2/CF pair shows excellent performance for overall water splitting, which is significantly superior to those of most reported electrocatalysts and the commercial system PtC/CF‖RuO2/CF.

Graphical abstract: Hierarchical Cu2S hollow nanowire arrays for highly efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
26 Mar 2021
Accepted
17 Apr 2021
First published
19 Apr 2021

Sustainable Energy Fuels, 2021,5, 2633-2639

Hierarchical Cu2S hollow nanowire arrays for highly efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

N. Xie, D. Ma, Y. Wu, X. Wu and Q. Zhu, Sustainable Energy Fuels, 2021, 5, 2633 DOI: 10.1039/D1SE00453K

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