Gao Xiaorui, Associate Professor, fromthe School of Electronic Information Engineeringrecentlypublished the title "Surface nitridation of nickel" in the internationally renowned journal "Applied Catalysis B: Environmental" (Area of SCI Division, Chinese Academy of Sciences, IF = 14.229) with the first author and Changshu Institute of Technology as the first completion unit -cobalt alloy nanocactoids raises the performance of water oxidation and splitting ". This study reported a cactus-like bifunctional catalyst (Ni2Co-N) for electrolyzing water, and studied the hydrogen evolution (HER) and oxygen evolution (OER) performance of the catalyst. It was found that the current density was 10 mA cm-2 Under, you can get an ultra-low overpotential of 214 mV. After the material is assembled as an alkaline electrolyzed water device as a positive and negative polar catalyst, the Faraday efficiency is close to 100%, and it can drive a current density of 10 mA cm-2 at 1.59 V. Thesis link:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0926337320303040

PaperTitle：Surface nitridation of nickel-cobalt alloy nanocactoids raises the performance of water oxidation and splitting

Journal：Applied Catalysis B: Environmental

Abstract：

A catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction (OER), cactus-like nitrogen encapsulated nickel-cobalt alloy (Ni₂Co-N) grown on carbon cloth, was synthesized by a facile surface nitridation strategy.The procedure involves a hydrothermal reaction and subsequent low-temperature reduction under ammonia gas. Ni₂Co-N exhibits anultralow OERoverpotential of 214 mV at 10 mA cm^–2in alkaline media, together with a small Tafel slope of 53 mV dec^-1, which is remarkably lower than those of the state-of-the-art 3dtransition metal alloys and their derivatives.

Figure 1 (a)Schematic illustration of the hydrothermal process for Ni₂Co-OH precursor and subsequent annealing process under NH₃for Ni₂Co-N architecture grown on carbon cloth. SEM images of (b, c) bare carbon cloth, (d, e) Ni₂Co-OH precursor, (f, g) Ni₂Co-N.

Xiaorui Gao is an associate professor in Deapartment of New Energy Science and Engineering, Changshu Institute of Technology. She as an academic visitor has been to National University of Singapore to do research for one and a half years. She received her PhD degree in 2010 from Southeast University (China). Her current research interests focus on the energy storage and conversion, including supercapacitors and electrocatalysis. She has published 20+ papers inprestigious international refereed journals.