3D well-ordered wood substrate coupled transition metal boride as efficient electrode for water splitting

The choice of substrate is critical to the performance of binder-free electrode for water splitting. Here, carbonized wood is employed as 3D porous diffusion substrates to accommodate conductive transitional metal boride. The composite is efficiently and uniformly deposited on the inner wall of the carbonized wood by means of simple electroless plating technique. The well-defined 3D Ni-W-B/wood electrode requires overpotential of only 46 mV at 50 mA cm−2 for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), outperforming the Ni-W-B/NF electrode with nickel foam as the substrate. The ordered channel structure inherited from the carbonized wood endows the electrode with abundant active site density, fast mass and charge transportation, and efficient transport of evolved gas. The outstanding advantages of environmentally benign nature, low cost, favorable 3D channel structure, and anti-corrosion in harsh condition make wood as a promising substrate for binder-free electrode.