Amorphous nickel oxide electrodes with high-current-density electrocatalytic performance for hydrogen evolution

The widespread use of unsustainable fossil fuels has caused serious damage to the ecological environment. The development of sustainable clean energy is urgent. Producing hydrogen by water electrolysis can effectively solve fossil energy shortage and environmental pollution issues. The preparation of inexpensive, efficient, and stable electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution electrode materials is the key to achieving the application of electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Herein, the amorphous nickel oxide/nickel foam (NiOx/NF) hydrogen evolution electrode was prepared by a simple one-step hydrothermal method with hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant. The amorphous leaf array structure of NiOx/NF electrode can enrich the surface composition and expose more catalytic active sites. Further, hydrogen peroxide etching can optimize the electronic structure of NiOx, and accelerate the electron migration. Thus, NiOx/NF displays excellent alkaline hydrogen evolution activity with the low over potentials of 70, 318 and 361 mV at 10, 500 and 1000 mA cm−2, respectively, leading to high performance in alkaline HER than those of reported Ni-based electrodes and even surpasses commercial Pt/C at high current density. Our work provides a new approach for developing inexpensive electrocatalysts with excellent alkaline hydrogen evolution activity and stability.