Disclosure of Invention
According to one aspect of the application, the invention provides a novel, efficient and economical oxygen evolution electrocatalytic material, and a preparation method and application thereof. The catalytic material can be directly used as a self-supporting electrode for electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction, and can ensure the stability of the catalyst material while realizing the high-efficiency electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction.
The invention provides an oxygen evolution electrocatalytic material, which comprises FeNiCr-chromium layered double hydroxide (FeNiCr-LDH) and a metal substrate, wherein the FeNiCr-LDH is vertically grown in situ on the surface of the metal substrate, and the metal substrate contains iron element, nickel element and chromium element.
Wherein the metal substrate may be at least one of Stainless Steel (SS) and foamed iron-nickel-chromium (FNC), preferably stainless steel.
Illustratively, the catalytic material comprises a FeNiCr-chromium layered double hydroxide (FeNiCr-LDH) and Stainless Steel (SS), expressed as FeNiCr-LDH-SS, which is grown vertically in situ on the surface of the stainless steel.
Illustratively, the catalytic material comprises FeNiCr-layered double hydroxide (FeNiCr-LDH) and foamed FeNiCr alloy (FNC), represented by FeNiCr-LDH-FNC, which is vertically grown in situ on the surface of the foamed FeNiCr alloy.
According to the technical scheme of the invention, the FeNiCr-LDH forms an ultrathin two-dimensional nanosheet array. Wherein the nanoplatelets have a thickness of 0.5-5nm, such as 1-4nm, further such as 1.3-3 nm; illustratively, the thickness may be 0.8nm, 1.5nm, 1.69nm, 2nm, 2.5 nm.
According to the technical scheme of the invention, the electrocatalytic material has a three-dimensional open porous structure consisting of an ultrathin two-dimensional nanosheet array formed by FeNiCr-LDH.
The second aspect of the present invention provides a method for preparing the oxygen evolution electrocatalytic material, comprising the following steps:
uniformly stirring an organic solvent, an acid solution and 2, 5-dihydroxyterephthalic acid to form a mixed solution, putting a metal containing iron, nickel and chromium as a substrate and a metal source into the mixed solution, and performing hydrothermal reaction to prepare the oxygen evolution electrocatalytic material.
According to the technical scheme of the invention, the acid solution can be selected from a hydrochloric acid solution, a sulfuric acid solution or a nitric acid solution, and is preferably a hydrochloric acid solution or a nitric acid solution. Further, the acid solution has a concentration of 0.5 to 5mol/L, such as 1 to 4mol/L, and illustratively, a concentration of 1.5mol/L, 2mol/L, 3 mol/L.
According to the technical scheme of the invention, the organic solvent can be selected from at least one of N, N-dimethylacetamide and N, N-dimethylformamide. Further, the volume ratio of the organic solvent to the acid solution is 1:5 to 5:1, for example 1:3 to 3:1, exemplarily 1: 1.
According to the technical scheme, the mass-to-volume ratio (g/mL) of the metal to the organic solvent is (1-4):30, such as (1.3-3):30, and exemplarily, the mass-to-volume ratio (g/mL) is 1.6: 30. Further, the metal comprises 50-60% of iron element, 8-25% of nickel element and 18-25% of chromium element by mass percentage, and preferably comprises 50-60% of iron element, 8-11% of nickel element and 18-20% of chromium element by mass percentage. For example, the metal may be stainless steel or a foamed iron-nickel-chromium alloy, such as 304 stainless steel. In the method, metal is used as a semi-sacrificial template and used as a metal source and a substrate, and iron, nickel and chromium required by the reaction are all from metal materials.
According to the technical scheme of the invention, the metal can be pretreated before being added into the reaction kettle so as to remove an oxide layer and organic residues on the surface of the metal. Wherein, the operation of the preprocessing can be as follows: the metal is ultrasonically washed by sequentially immersing in an acid (e.g., dilute hydrochloric acid, dilute sulfuric acid, dilute nitric acid), ethanol, and water, and then dried.
According to the technical scheme of the invention, in the reaction process, under the etching of an acid solution, Fe ions, Ni ions and Cr ions are dissolved out from the surface of a metal substrate, and at the same time, the FeNiCr-LDH material grows in situ on the metal surface. The added 2, 5-dihydroxyterephthalic acid ligand is used for regulating and controlling the thickness of the FeNiCr-LDH nano-sheet.
According to the technical scheme of the invention, the mass-to-volume ratio (mg/mL) of the 2, 5-dihydroxyterephthalic acid to the organic solvent is (1-10):3, such as (2-7):3, and further such as (3-5):3, and exemplarily, the mass-to-volume ratio (mg/mL) is 4: 3.
According to the technical scheme of the invention, the temperature of the hydrothermal reaction is 50-300 ℃, such as 100-200 ℃, and exemplarily 130 ℃, 150 ℃ and 170 ℃. Further, the hydrothermal reaction time is not more than 48 hours, such as 12 to 30 hours, and illustratively, the time is 15 hours, 18 hours, 24 hours.
According to the technical scheme of the invention, after the hydrothermal reaction is finished, the product is naturally cooled to room temperature, and then the product is washed. For example, the product is washed several times with ethanol and water (such as distilled or deionized water). Further, after completion of washing, the product was dried at 50 to 70 ℃.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the method for preparing the oxygen evolution electrocatalytic material comprises the following steps:
a) uniformly mixing a hydrochloric acid solution, a 2, 5-dihydroxy terephthalic acid ligand and N, N-dimethylacetamide, adding a pretreated metal material, and placing the metal material in a polytetrafluoroethylene reaction kettle;
b) the reaction kettle is sealed, and is kept at the temperature of 50-300 ℃ for no more than 48 hours to carry out hydrothermal reaction, so that the oxygen evolution electrocatalytic material is obtained after the reaction is finished.
A third aspect of the present invention provides an oxygen evolution electrocatalytic material obtained by the above preparation method.
A fourth aspect of the invention provides the use of the above oxygen evolution electrocatalytic material for electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reactions, preferably as a self-supporting electrode in the reaction.
The invention has the beneficial effects that:
(1) the FeNiCr-LDH grows on the surface of metal (such as stainless steel) in situ, and the FeNiCr-LDH and the metal (such as stainless steel) are in close and firm contact, so that the overall conductivity and stability of the catalyst are enhanced.
(2) The electrocatalytic material provided by the invention has a three-dimensional open porous structure formed by an ultrathin two-dimensional nanosheet array, can expose more catalytic active sites, and is favorable for the permeation of electrolyte to promote the transfer of electrons and mass, thereby accelerating the catalytic reaction kinetics.
(3) The electrocatalytic material provided by the invention can be directly used as a self-supporting electrode for electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction, avoids the use of an adhesive, reduces the electrode preparation steps, and is simple, convenient and quick.
(4) The electrocatalytic material provided by the invention can be applied to oxygen evolution reaction under alkaline electrolyte to obviously reduce overpotential, and when the current density is 10 and 100mA cm-2The required overpotential is only 202mV and 242mV, with a smaller Tafel slope.
(5) The electrocatalytic material provided by the invention takes metal (such as stainless steel) as a raw material, adopts a one-step hydrothermal synthesis method, has low cost, simple and convenient operation and excellent performance, and can realize larger current density in the catalysis process, so that the oxygen evolution electrocatalytic material has wide application prospects in the fields of energy conversion, energy storage and the like.
Detailed Description
The technical solution of the present invention will be further described in detail with reference to specific embodiments. It is to be understood that the following examples are only illustrative and explanatory of the present invention and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention. All the technologies realized based on the above-mentioned contents of the present invention are covered in the protection scope of the present invention.
Unless otherwise indicated, the raw materials and reagents used in the following examples are all commercially available products or can be prepared by known methods.
The information on the instruments used in the following examples is shown in Table 1, and the information on the reagents used in the examples is shown in Table 2.
TABLE 1 Instrument information Table used in the examples
TABLE 2 information Table of reagents used in examples
Example 1
(1) Pretreatment of the substrate: 0.8g of stainless steel (SS, 304, containing 50-60 wt% of Fe, 8-11 wt% of Ni, 18-20 wt% of Cr, 1000 mesh) having a size of 4cm × 2.5cm was immersed in dilute hydrochloric acid (2.0mol/L HCl), ethanol and distilled water in this order, ultrasonically washed to remove a surface oxide layer and organic residues thereof, and then dried in an oven at 60 ℃.
(2) To a polytetrafluoroethylene reaction vessel (50mL) were added 20.0mg of 2, 5-dihydroxyterephthalic acid, 15mL of hydrochloric acid solution (2.0mol/L) and 15mL of N, N-Dimethylacetamide (DMA) and stirred well to form a mixed solution. And (2) putting the stainless steel sheet pretreated in the step (1) into a reaction kettle to be used as a growth substrate and a metal source. The sealed reaction kettle is placed in an oven to be heated and kept at 150 ℃ for 18 hours. After natural cooling to room temperature, the obtained dark green FeNiCr-LDH-SS was washed several times with ethanol and distilled water and dried at 60 ℃.
Example 2
(1) The pretreatment of the substrate was the same as in step (1) of example 1.
(2) A polytetrafluoroethylene reaction vessel (50mL) was charged with 15mL of a hydrochloric acid solution (2.0mol/L) and 15mL of N, N-Dimethylacetamide (DMA) and stirred well to form a mixed solution. Then the pretreated stainless steel sheet is put into a reaction kettle to be used as a growth substrate and a metal source. The sealed reaction kettle is placed in an oven to be heated and kept at 150 ℃ for 18 hours. After natural cooling to room temperature, the obtained dark green FeNiCr-LDH-SS was washed several times with ethanol and distilled water and dried at 60 ℃.
Example 3
(1) The pretreatment of the substrate was the same as in step (1) of example 1.
(2) 5mg of 2, 5-dihydroxyterephthalic acid, 15mL of a hydrochloric acid solution (2.0mol/L) and 15mL of N, N-Dimethylacetamide (DMA) were added to a polytetrafluoroethylene reaction vessel (50mL) and stirred uniformly to form a mixed solution. Then the pretreated stainless steel sheet is put into a reaction kettle to be used as a growth substrate and a metal source. The sealed reaction kettle is placed in an oven to be heated and kept at 150 ℃ for 18 hours. After natural cooling to room temperature, the obtained dark green FeNiCr-LDH-SS was washed several times with ethanol and distilled water and dried at 60 ℃.
Example 4
(1) The pretreatment of the substrate was the same as in step (1) of example 1.
(2) To a polytetrafluoroethylene reaction vessel (50mL) were added 35mg of 2, 5-dihydroxyterephthalic acid, 15mL of a hydrochloric acid solution (2.0mol/L) and 15mL of N, N-Dimethylacetamide (DMA) and stirred well to form a mixed solution. Then the pretreated stainless steel sheet is put into a reaction kettle to be used as a growth substrate and a metal source. The sealed reaction kettle is placed in an oven to be heated and kept at 150 ℃ for 18 hours. After natural cooling to room temperature, the obtained dark green FeNiCr-LDH-SS was washed several times with ethanol and distilled water and dried at 60 ℃.
Example 5
(1) The pretreatment of the substrate was the same as in step (1) of example 1.
(2) To a polytetrafluoroethylene reaction vessel (50mL) were added 20mg of 2, 5-dihydroxyterephthalic acid, 15mL of nitric acid solution (2.0mol/L) and 15mL of N, N-Dimethylacetamide (DMA) and stirred well to form a mixed solution. Then the pretreated stainless steel sheet is put into a reaction kettle to be used as a growth substrate and a metal source. The sealed reaction kettle is placed in an oven to be heated and kept at 150 ℃ for 18 hours. After natural cooling to room temperature, the obtained dark green FeNiCr-LDH-SS was washed several times with ethanol and distilled water and dried at 60 ℃.
Example 6
(1) Foamed iron-nickel-chromium alloy (abbreviated as FNC, in mass percent: 50% iron, 25% nickel, 25% chromium) was used as a substrate, and the pretreatment of the substrate was the same as in step (1) of example 1.
(2) To a polytetrafluoroethylene reaction vessel (50mL) were added 20.0mg of 2, 5-dihydroxyterephthalic acid, 15mL of hydrochloric acid solution (2.0mol/L) and 15mL of N, N-Dimethylacetamide (DMA) and stirred well to form a mixed solution. And (2) putting the foam iron nickel chromium alloy sheet pretreated in the step (1) into a reaction kettle to be used as a growth substrate and a metal source. The sealed reaction kettle is placed in an oven to be heated and kept at 150 ℃ for 18 hours. After natural cooling to room temperature, the obtained dark green FeNiCr-LDH-FNC ethanol and distilled water were washed several times and dried at 60 ℃.
Structure characterization of the products of examples 1-4
The product obtained in example 1 was subjected to ultrasonic treatment to collect FeNiCr-LDH powder grown on the surface of stainless steel, and X-ray powder diffraction analysis of the FeNiCr-LDH powder was performed, where (a) is a theoretical powder X-ray diffraction pattern of FeNi-based LDH and (b) is an experimentally measured powder X-ray diffraction pattern of the powder of example 1 in fig. 1. As can be seen from the figure, the XRD spectrum obtained by the powder experiment in example 1 is basically consistent with the theoretical spectrum, thereby showing that FeNi-based LDH grows on the surface of the stainless steel in example 1.
FIG. 2 is a scanning electron micrograph of the products of examples 1 to 4. In FIG. 2, (a) is the SEM image of the product of example 2, (b) is the SEM image of the product of example 3, (c) is the SEM image of the product of example 1, and (d) is the SEM image of the product of example 4. As can be clearly seen from the figure, the thickness of the nanosheets formed in (a) to (d) is gradually reduced along with the increase of the adding amount of the ligand 2, 5-dihydroxyterephthalic acid, and the three-dimensional open porous structure can still be maintained on the whole. When the amount of the ligand added is too large as in (d), although the thickness of the nanosheet is further reduced, curling occurs due to the thinness of the nanosheet, so that a three-dimensional open porous structure cannot be formed, thereby affecting catalytic performance. Therefore, the ligand plays a crucial role in forming an open porous structure consisting of an ultrathin two-dimensional nanosheet array. The experimental result shows that the product of the example 1 has the optimal morphology structure and the optimal catalytic performance. As can be seen from the atomic force microscope image of the product in example 1 in FIG. 3, the thickness of the ultrathin nanosheet is only 1.69 nm.
The ultrathin two-dimensional nanosheet and the open porous structure formed by the product in the embodiment 1 can avoid serious aggregation of the catalyst, expose more catalytic active sites, and facilitate permeation of electrolyte to promote electron and mass transfer, so that catalytic reaction kinetics is accelerated.
FIG. 4 is an X-ray photoelectron spectrum of the product of example 1. The presence of Fe, Ni and Cr elements in example 1 was confirmed. Namely, in example 1, the surface of the stainless steel is grown with trimetal FeNiCr-LDH.
(II) electrocatalytic oxygen evolution performance test of the products of examples 1-4
The electro-catalytic oxygen evolution performance test of the embodiment adopts a three-electrode test system, and the above-mentioned embodiments 1E to E4 FeNiCr-LDH-SS made of the product is used as a working electrode, and the electrode area is 1 multiplied by 1cm2The platinum mesh was used as a counter electrode and the silver/silver chloride electrode as a reference electrode. The electrolyte is a 1mol/L KOH solution. The scanning rate at 25 ℃ is 5mV s-1Recording Linear Sweep Voltammetry (LSV) under the conditions of (a) to obtain a polarization curve, as shown in fig. 5, it can be seen that the product of example 1 shows the most excellent catalytic performance at 10mA cm-2And 100mA cm-2The minimum overpotential of (a) is only 201mV and 242 mV. All electrode potential data were 95% iR compensated.
The stability test was carried out on the product of example 1 at 10mA cm-2And 20mA cm-2When the test voltage is maintained for 15 hours under the condition of alternating constant current density, as shown in figure 6, the test voltage does not change obviously in the test process, and the example 1 has higher stability. The test result shows that the catalyst of the example 1 has excellent catalytic performance and high stability, and is one of the oxygen evolution electrocatalysts with the best performance so far.
The embodiments of the present invention have been described above. However, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. Any modification, equivalent replacement, or improvement made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.