title: Low-Temperature Synthesis of Hierarchical Amorphous Basic Nickel Carbonate Particles for Water Oxidation Catalysis.
abstract: Amorphous nickel carbonate particles are catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), which plays a critical role in the electrochemical splitting of water. The amorphous nickel carbonate particles can be prepared at a temperature as low as 60 °C by an evaporation-induced precipitation (EIP) method. The products feature hierarchical pore structures. The mass-normalized activity of the catalysts, measured at an overpotential of 0.35 V, was 55.1 A g(-1) , with a Tafel slope of only 60 mV dec(-1) . This catalytic activity is superior to the performance of crystalline NiOx particles and β-Ni(OH)2 particles, and compares favorably to state-of-the-art RuO2 catalysts. The activity of the amorphous nickel carbonate is remarkably stable during a 10 000 s chronoamperometry test. Further optimization of synthesis parameters reveals that the amorphous structure can be tuned by adjusting the H2 O/Ni ratio in the precursor mixture. These results suggest the potential application of easily prepared hierarchical basic nickel carbonate particles as cheap and robust OER catalysts with high activity.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072 (Australia), Fax: (+61) 733654199http://www.chemeng.uq.edu.au/zhu.
authors.forename: Yisu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072 (Australia), Fax: (+61) 733654199http://www.chemeng.uq.edu.au/zhu.
authors.forename: Fengli
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072 (Australia), Fax: (+61) 733654199http://www.chemeng.uq.edu.au/zhu.
authors.forename: Mengran
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072 (Australia), Fax: (+61) 733654199http://www.chemeng.uq.edu.au/zhu.
authors.forename: Thomas E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Rufford
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072 (Australia), Fax: (+61) 733654199http://www.chemeng.uq.edu.au/zhu. wei.zhou@uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072 (Australia), Fax: (+61) 733654199http://www.chemeng.uq.edu.au/zhu. z.zhu@uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Zhonghua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D002384:Catalysis; D009532:Nickel / Q000737:chemistry*; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D013696:Temperature; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D014867:Water; D009532:Nickel; C030989:nickel carbonate
keywords: amorphous materials; heterogeneous catalysis; hierarchical; nickel; water splitting