Enhancing Water/Seawater Electrolysis Catalysis Through Ag Doping: High-Performance and Stable Nicr-Ldh for Multifunctional Electrocatalyst

Abstract

In the vast array of transition metal hydrogen evolution catalysts, nickel-based catalysts stand out for their exceptional electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance. In this work, NiCrLDH is successfully synthesized via a hydrothermal method and demonstrated excellent performance in electrochemical tests. Under alkaline conditions, the overpotential of Ag-NiCrLDH-0.3 for OER is 275.5 mV, and high activity of 0.02481 mF cm−2, indicating the superior performance of the synthesized material. It also shows the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) overpotential of 116.5 mV, although the intrinsic activity was not the highest due to its higher value. The sample showed good stability after 50 hours of chronoamperometry testing. To assess its practical application value, the electrolyte was switched to alkaline seawater, resulting in an OER overpotential of 331.5 mV, which is a slight increase, and the sample maintained good stability over 50 hours of chronoamperometry testing.

Keywords: NiCr-LDH, hydrogen evolution reaction, oxygen evolution reaction, water electrolysis