Interfacial Engineering of Ni/V<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> Heterostructure Catalyst for Boosting Hydrogen Oxidation Reaction in Alkaline Electrolytes
Yu Duan, Xiaolong Zhang, Fei‐Yue Gao, Yuan Kong, Ying Duan, Xiao‐Tu Yang, Xingxing Yu, Yan‐Ru Wang, Shuai Qin, Zhi Chen, Rui Wu, Peng‐Peng Yang, Xusheng Zheng, Junfa Zhu, Min‐Rui Gao, Tong‐Bu Lu, Ziyou Yu, Shu‐Hong Yu
Abstract
Abstract Alkaline fuel cells can permit the adoption of platinum group metal‐free (PGM‐free) catalysts and cheap bipolar plates, thus further lowering the cost. With the exploration of PGM‐free hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) catalysts, nickel‐based compounds have been considered as the most promising HOR catalysts in alkali. Here we report an interfacial engineering through the formation of nickel‐vanadium oxide (Ni/V 2 O 3 ) heterostructures to activate Ni for efficient HOR catalysis in alkali. The strong electron transfer from Ni to V 2 O 3 could modulate the electronic structure of Ni sites. The optimal Ni/V 2 O 3 catalyst exhibits a high intrinsic activity of 0.038 mA cm −2 and outstanding stability. Experimental and theoretical studies reveal that Ni/V 2 O 3 interface as the active sites can enable to optimize the hydrogen and hydroxyl bindings, as well as protect metallic Ni from extensive oxidation, thus achieving the notable activity and durability.