Ni foam electrodes decorated with Ni nanoparticles via pulsed laser deposition for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

In this work, we investigated Nickel Foam (NF) electrodes decorated with Ni nanoparticles at various deposited thicknesses through the Pulsed Laser Deposition technique for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were employed to gain insight into the structural and morphological characteristics of the prepared electrodes. The optimum deposition thickness was found to be 300 nm. The NF electrode decorated with 300 nm Ni nanoparticles (Ni/NF 300) exhibited improved electrochemical characteristics, i.e., reduced overpotential values |i10| = 0.11 V and lower Tafel slope 99 mV dec-1, as compared to the values of 0.24 V and 134 mV dec-1, respectively, for bare NF electrode. In addition, the Ni/NF 300 electrode presents a 15-fold increase in its electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) in comparison to an NF electrode.