Highly Active Self-Repairing Anode Catalyst for Alkaline Water Electrolysis Using Ni-Based Hybrid Nanosheets

摘要

Alkaline water electrolysis (AWE) is an established technology for hydrogen production from electricity. Recent demands on the hydrogen production from renewable energy raised the issue of electrode degradation in AWE because of reverse current that is caused during the suspended period of AWE. We have recently reported that the cobalt hydroxide nanosheet modified with organic tripodal ligand (hybrid cobalt hydroxide nanosheet: Co-ns) is dispersed in an electrolyte and behaves as self-repairing catalyst. Co-ns is deposited on a nickel anode during electrolysis, which has been utilized as repairing process of a catalyst layer. Because high dispersibility is required for self-repairing catalysts, the change in the composition to improve the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity was limited. Here, we report the synthesis of a novel NiFe-based hybrid nanosheet (NiFe-ns) with high dispersibility (Fig. 1) and its use as self-repairing anode catalyst with high OER activity.