High-Performance Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Catalytic Electrodes by Liquid Joule-Heating Growth

Despite the great progress in the research of integrated catalytic electrodes for hydrogen evolution reaction, the efficient preparation of high-performance catalytic electrodes with high current density remains a challenging issue. In this work, a metal (Pt)-amorphous oxide (NiO) heterostructure catalyst is successfully in situ grown on nickel foam using liquid Joule-heating. Based on the superhydrophilic surface of the electrode and its superior mechanical and chemical stability, the catalytic electrode exhibits excellent catalytic performance in alkaline electrolytes with only 100 mV overpotential to achieve 5000 mA cm-2 current density and maintains a stable performance of 500 h under a fixed current density of 1000 mA cm-2. Further verification of the practical application of the Pt@NiO-Ni electrode in the alkaline electrolyzer is conducted. The results show that the alkaline water electrolyzer with NiFe layered double hydroxide as the anode and Pt@NiO-Ni as the cathode exhibits superior performance than the previously reported electrolyzers, with a current density of 1 A cm-2 already achieved at 1.75 V, which is even comparable to some anion exchange membrane water electrolyzers. These experimental results illustrate the strong applicability of Pt@NiO-Ni electrode at industrial scale current densities. The integrated electrode is synthesized in one step by liquid-phase Joule heating within minutes. The electrode exhibits outstanding catalytic activity and stability for hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline electrolyte and performs excellent in practical electrolytic water cell applications. This work provides a new direction for the controllable preparation of integrated electrodes.image