Silicon Atom Doping in Heterotrimetallic Sulfides for Non-noble Metal
Alkaline Water Electrolysis
Abstract
This study investigates the modification of materials by doping with
foreign elements to enhance electrocatalytic activity and focuses on the
engineering of an inorganic material composed of transition
heterometal-rich pentlandite (Fe3Co3Ni3S8, FCNS) doped with silicon
(FCNSSi) as a bifunctional catalyst for the overall electrochemical
water splitting process. The FCNSSi electrode exhibits remarkable
catalytic activity for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen
evolution reaction (HER). The OER performance of FCNSSi was evaluated in
a 1.0 M KOH solution, achieving an overpotential of 313 mV at 10 mA
cm-2. The FCNSSi electrode exhibits a current density of -10 mA cm-2 at
a remarkably low overpotential of 164 mV with a Tafel slope of 80.7
mV/dec in HER. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation suggests that
Si doping adjusts the binding energies of intermediates on the surface,
which weakened the *OH, *O, and *OOH adsorption energies, resulting in
enhanced activity for both OER and HER. Moreover, Si doping enhances the
hydrogen adsorption activity of all sites. Finally, a two-electrode
zero-gap cell assembly was used to investigate the durability of FCNSSi
catalyst towards efficient and durable alkaline water electrolysis,
demonstrating the promising potential of this catalyst for practical
applications at 500 mA cm-2.