Hierarchically Catalysts for Water Splitting and Selective Hydrogenation

Dear Colleagues,

The need for sustainable and renewable energy production, storage, and conversion technologies has never been more pressing than now. To address the energy and environmental crisis, electrochemical water splitting has emerged as a promising method for producing green hydrogen. Similarly, industrial products (such as cyclohexene) are very important chemical intermediates. They are widely used in the production of cyclohexanol, cyclohexanone, and other chemical products, and also constitute the main production cost of enterprises. Selective hydrogenation is an excellent method used to prepare these products in large quantities. These approaches require concerted efforts to design catalytic materials that are highly active, cost-effective, and have long-term stability. Heterostructures, commonly defined as composites consisting of interfaces in different components, have demonstrated exceptional catalytic performance in electrocatalysis and industrial catalysis, particularly in hydrogen evolution reactions (HERs), oxygen evolution reactions (OERs), and benzene selective hydrogenation (BSH). Heterostructured materials often show improved charge transfer because of the diverse arrangements of energy bands in different components and have recieved significant attention because of the fascinating synergistic effects of the interactive coupling between heterogeneous zones, resulting in high activity and long-term stability.

Prof. Dr. Guangjie Shao
Dr. Ailing Song
Guest Editors

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• heterostructures
• electrocatalysis
• hydrogen evolution reaction
• oxygen evolution reaction
• benzene selective hydrogenation
• water splitting

Title: One-step synthesis of high-efficiency OER catalyst FeS(DI/MB) with high temperature resistance and strong alkali
Authors: Jing Wang; Lingling Feng; Zikang Zhao; Yan Wang; Ying Zhang; Shan Song; Shengwei Sun; Junshuang Zhou; Faming Gao
Affiliation: Yanshan University
Abstract: In the energy crisis, environmental pollution is increasingly serious today, the development of clean new energy is imminent. Hydrogen has attracted much attention because of its clean product, high energy density and easy storage and transportation. In this paper, four types of catalysts FeS(DI/MB), FeS(ET/MB), Fe(DI/MB) and Fe(ET/MB) were prepared by using two solution systems (DI/MB and ET/MB). The catalyst FeS(DI/MB) prepared by the layered solution system (DI/MB) is a nanomaterials, showing good electrochemical performance. It is found that it can work stably in high temperature and strong alkali environment through the simulation of industrial electrolytic test conditions, and has the potential for industrial application. These works provide different ideas for the preparation of iron nickel sulfide based catalysts, and it is believed that with more in-depth and comprehensive exploration, iron nickel sulfide based catalysts will show excellent catalytic performance in the field of electrolytic water hydrogen production.

Title: Strong and Hierarchical Ni(OH)2/Ni/rGO Composites as Multifunctional Catalysts for Excellent Water Splitting
Authors: Lixin Wang; Ailing Song; Yue Lu; Manman Duanmu; Zhipeng Ma; Xiujuan Qin; Guangjie Shao
Affiliation: Hebei Key Laboratory of Applied Chemistry, College of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, China, State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, Chin
Abstract: The lack of efficient and non-precious metal catalysts poses a challenge for electrochemical water splitting in the hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions. Here, we report on the preparation of Ni(OH)2 nanosheets in situ growing on Ni and graphene hybrid using a gentle one-step hydrothermal method. Taking advantage of the catalytic characteristics of Ni-based metal and Ni hydroxide is to design a new-style and environment-friendly catalyst. The obtained catalyst displays outstanding performance with small overpotentials of 161.7 and 41 mV to acquire current densities of 100 and 10 mA cm−2 on hydrogen evolution reaction, overpotentials of 407 and 331 mV to afford 100 and 50 mA cm−2 on oxygen evolution reaction, and 10 mA·cm-2 at a cell voltage of 1.43 V for water splitting in 1 M KOH. The electrochemical activity of the catalyst is higher than most of the earth-abundant materials reported to date. It is equivalent to the most advanced precious metals because of its special hierarchical structure, large surface area, and good electrical conductivity. This study provides new tactics for enhancing the catalytic performance of water electrolysis.

Title: Stable Improving the Catalytic Activity of Oxygen Evolution Reaction via Two-Dimensional Graphene Oxide Incorporated NiFe Layered Double Hydroxides
Authors: Ling Chen; Yue Lu; Manman Duanmu; Xin Zhao; Shenglu Song; Liyue Duan; Zhipeng Ma; Ailing Song; Guangjie Shao
Affiliation: Hebei Key Laboratory of Applied Chemistry, College of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
Abstract: NiFe-layered double hydroxides (NiFe-LDH) have been reported to possess exceptional oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity. However, maintaining the stability of high activity over a long time remains a critical challenge that needs to be addressed for its practical application. Here, we report a custom-sized deep recombination of 2D graphene oxide with NiFe-LDH (NiFe-LDH/GO/NF) through a simple electrodeposition method that improves OER activity and achieves excellent stability. The excellent performance of the catalyst mainly comes from the three-phase interface and electron transport channel dredged by the three-dimensional structure constructed by the deep composite, which can not only significantly reduce its charge and electron transfer resistance, improve the material conductivity but also effectively increase the specific surface area, inhibit aggregation, and expose rich active sites. The experimental results show that the overpotential of NiFe-LDH/20000GO/NF is only 295 mV at a current density of 100 mA cm-2, the Tafel slope is 52 mV dec-1, and the charge transfer resistance Rct is only 0.601 Ω in 1 M KOH. This indicates that GO has excellent potential to assist in constructing geometric and electronic structures of NiFe-LDH in long-term applications.