Abstract
The availability of efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts is of high importance for solar fuel technologies aimed at reducing future carbon emissions. Even though Pt electrodes are excellent HER electrocatalysts, commercialization of large-scale hydrogen production technology requires finding an equally efficient, low-cost, earth-abundant alternative. Here, high porosity, metal-organic framework (MOF) films have been used as scaffolds for the deposition of a Ni-S electrocatalyst. Compared with an MOF-free Ni-S, the resulting hybrid materials exhibit significantly enhanced performance for HER from aqueous acid, decreasing the kinetic overpotential by more than 200 mV at a benchmark current density of 10 mA cm-2. Although the initial aim was to improve electrocatalytic activity by greatly boosting the active area of the Ni-S catalyst, the performance enhancements instead were found to arise primarily from the ability of the proton-conductive MOF to favourably modify the immediate chemical environment of the sulfide-based catalyst.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 8304 |
Journal | Nature Communications |
Volume | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 14 Sep 2015 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank the following for postdoctoral or graduate fellowship support: the Fulbright Commission (I.H.), the Graduate Students Study Abroad Program sponsored by National Science Council, Taiwan (C.W.K.), the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship programme (M.S.) and a grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, MURI programme (Award Number FA9550-10-1-0572) (M.D.S). J.T.H and O.K.F acknowledge that this work was supported as part of the ANSER Center, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award Number DE-SC0001059.
Funding
We thank the following for postdoctoral or graduate fellowship support: the Fulbright Commission (I.H.), the Graduate Students Study Abroad Program sponsored by National Science Council, Taiwan (C.W.K.), the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship programme (M.S.) and a grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, MURI programme (Award Number FA9550-10-1-0572) (M.D.S). J.T.H and O.K.F acknowledge that this work was supported as part of the ANSER Center, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award Number DE-SC0001059.
Funders | Funder number |
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Office of Basic Energy Sciences | DE-SC0001059 |
U.S. Department of Energy | |
Air Force Office of Scientific Research | FA9550-10-1-0572 |
Office of Science | |
National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate | |
US-UK Fulbright Commission | |
National Science Council |