Facile in-situ deposition of three-dimensional Pt nanoballs of nickel nanorods heterojunction electrodes for hydrogen evolution reaction

Hydrogen is a kind of renewable energy for a friendly environment and can promote carbon emission reduction. The Platinum catalytic electrode is widely applied in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) of water due to its low overpotential. However, it has affected its commercial application because of its high cost. Therefore, developing heterojunction catalysts with Platinum for HER is an effective way to achieve large-scale hydrogen production. In this work, we present a novel PtNBs/NiNRs heterojunction catalyst via the Pt nanoballs in-situ deposition on Ni nanorods array. The results demonstrate that the PtNBs/NiNRs electrodes have superior catalytic activity for HER in an alkaline condition. The hydrogen overpotential of PtNBs/NiNRs is −61.6 mV (RHE) in the alkaline solution, which is lower than the Pt electrode of −184mV. The Tafel plots and EIS were employed to investigate the mechanism and kinetics of the PtNBs/NiNRs in the alkaline solution. The nanostructures of Ni nanorobs and the Pt nanoballs active sites decrease the charge transfer resistance and increase the charge capacitance for the HER process compared to the Pt electrode. The PtNBs/NiNRs heterojunction catalyst electrodes demonstrate promising applications in HER because of their facile preparation, high efficiency, and low value.