Profuse Surface Activation of Ir-Dispersed Titanium Nitride Bifunctional Electrocatalysts

Dispersing small amounts of rare-earth metal on the surface of metallic nitrides displays great prospects for systematic tweaking of electrocatalytic activity. Iridium (Ir)-integrated titanium nitride nanowires (Ir-TiN NWs) for bifunctional catalytic activities are demonstrated. To expose real electrocatalytic activity, the Ir-TiN catalysts are characterized in conjunction with density functional theory (DFT) computations by a wide range of spectroscopic and electrochemical systems. Impressively, Ir-TiN NWs electrocatalysts grown from titanium dioxide nanoparticles, which are capable of delivering quick hydrogen (H-2) evaluation with least over-potentials of 93mV for 10mAcm(-2) in neutral medium. In addition, this efficient Ir-TiN NWs delivers outstanding hydrogen evolution reaction with smaller over-potential of 49mV for 10mAcm(-2) in acid medium. Overall, the study highlights a novel, extremely energetic bifunctional catalyst; it proposes novel imperative perceptions into the structure and performance of bimetallic nitride electrocatalysts in wide range pH environments.