Active site engineering of intermetallic nanoparticles by the vapour-solid synthesis: carbon black supported nickel tellurides for hydrogen evolution

Author(s)
Daniel Garstenauer, Patrick Guggenberger, Ondřej Zobač, Franz Jirsa, Klaus W. Richter
Abstract

The development and design of catalysts have become a major pillar of latest research efforts to make sustainable forms of energy generation accessible. The production of green hydrogen by electrocatalytic water splitting is dealt as one of the most promising ways to enable decarbonization. To make the hydrogen evolution reaction through electrocatalytic water splitting usable on a large scale, the development of highly-active catalysts with long-term stability and simple producibility is required. Recently, nickel tellurides were found to be an interesting alternative to noble-metal materials. Previous publications dealt with individual nickel telluride species of certain compositions due to the lack of broadly applicable synthesis strategies. For the first time, in this work the preparation of carbon black supported nickel telluride nanoparticles and their catalytic performance for the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline media is presented. The facile vapour-solid synthesis strategy enabled remarkable control over the crystal structure and composition, demonstrating interesting opportunities of active site engineering. Both single- and multi-phase samples containing the Ni-Te compounds Ni3Te2, NiTe, NiTe2−x & NiTe2 were prepared. Onset potentials and overpotentials of −0.145 V vs. RHE and 315 mV at 10 mA cm−2 respectively were achieved.

Organisation(s)
Department of Functional Materials and Catalysis, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Core Facility Crystal Structure Analysis
External organisation(s)
Czech Academy of Sciences, University of Johannesburg (UJ)
Journal
Nanoscale
Volume
16
Pages
20168-20181
No. of pages
14
ISSN
2040-3364
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/d4nr03397c
Publication date
10-2024
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
204001 Inorganic chemical technology, 104008 Catalysis, 205019 Material sciences
ASJC Scopus subject areas
General Materials Science
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/5f9d9f95-8fb5-4189-8094-90bba305fc0e