How Acid Washing Nickel Foam Substrates Improves the Efficiency of the Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution Reaction
Ferriday, Thomas Benjamin; Nuggehalli Sampathkumar, Suhas; Middleton, Peter Hugh; Van Herle, Jan; Kolhe, Mohan Lal
Peer reviewed, Journal article
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2023Metadata
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Ferriday, T. B., Nuggehalli Sampathkumar, S., Middleton, P. H., Van Herle, J. & Kolhe, M. L. (2023). How Acid Washing Nickel Foam Substrates Improves the Efficiency of the Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution Reaction. Energies, 16 (5). https://doi.org/10.3390/en16052083Abstract
Nickel foam substrates are frequently utilised as porous 3D substrates for renewable energyapplications. The preparation of these substrates usually includes an acid-washing step, but thedegree to which this step affects the final electrochemical performance after spray-coating a catalystink is unreported. Herein, we report the effects of acid washing through physicochemical andelectrochemical characterisation. The electrochemical performance was determined through repeatedmeasurements of catalyst-coated nickel foam substrates both with and without the initial step of acidwashing. It was found that acid washing increased the current density by 17.9% for the acid-treatedMoS2-coated nickel foam electrode. This increment was affiliated with an electrochemically activesurface area that increased by 11.2%, and a Tafel analysis indicated that the acid-treated MoS2-coatedelectrodes facilitated the initial water dissociation step of the hydrogen evolution reaction with greaterease. Similar effects were also discovered for acid-treated PtIr(1:3)/C-coated nickel foam substrates.The stability was also improved; the degradation rate was reduced by 18.9% for the acid-treatedMoS2-coated electrodes. This demonstrates the utility of acid washing nickel foam electrodes.