Ultrasmall dispersible crystalline nickel oxide nanoparticles as high-performance catalysts for electrochemical water splitting

Ksenia Fominykh, Johann M. Feckl, Johannes Sicklinger, Markus Döblinger, Sebastian Böcklein, Jurgen Ziegler, Laurence Peter, Jiri Rathousky, Ernst-Wilhelm Scheidt, Thomas Bein, Dina Fattakhova-Rohlfing

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

325 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Ultrasmall, crystalline, and dispersible NiO nanoparticles are prepared for the first time, and it is shown that they are promising candidates as catalysts for electrochemical water oxidation. Using a solvothermal reaction in tert-butanol, very small nickel oxide nanocrystals can be made with sizes tunable from 2.5 to 5 nm and a narrow particle size distribution. The crystals are perfectly dispersible in ethanol even after drying, giving stable transparent colloidal dispersions. The structure of the nanocrystals corresponds to phase-pure stoichiometric nickel(ii) oxide with a partially oxidized surface exhibiting Ni(iii) states. The 3.3 nm nanoparticles demonstrate a remarkably high turn-over frequency of 0.29 s at an overpotential of g = 300 mV for electrochemical water oxidation, outperforming even expensive rare earth iridium oxide catalysts. The unique features of these NiO nanocrystals provide great potential for the preparation of novel composite materials with applications in the field of (photo)electrochemical water splitting. The dispersed colloidal solutions may also find other applications, such as the preparation of uniform hole-conducting layers for organic solar cells.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3123-3129
Number of pages7
JournalAdvanced Functional Materials
Volume24
Issue number21
Early online date10 Mar 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Jun 2014

Keywords

  • electrocatalysis
  • nickel oxide
  • nanocrystals
  • solvothermal synthesis
  • water splitting

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