Energy-Saving Electrochemical Hydrogen Production on Dynamic Hydrogen Bubble-Template Electrodeposited Ni-Cu-Mn Nano-Micro Dendrite

Replacing an oxidation reaction with lower potential than OER can significantly reduce the cell potential in the hydrogen production process. Here, we synthesized Ni-Cu-Mn alloy nano-micro dendrites using one-step and binder-free dynamic hydrogen bubble template (DHBT) electrochemical deposition method and studied its activity for urea oxidation reaction (UOR) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Electrochemical results for HER represented that the η ₁₀ for the optimized electrode is 63 mV and its Tafel slope is 111 mV.dec ⁻¹ . Also, the results of polarization tests showed that by replacing the OER process with UOR, in the overall water splitting process, to create a current density of 10 mA.cm ⁻² the cell potential reaches 1.361 V, which is 179 mV less than HER-OER. Also, the results of electrocatalytic stability represented small changes in overpotential during the electrolysis process, which indicates the unique electrocatalytic stability. The improvement of electrocatalytic results in this study is due to the fabrication of a binder-free and three-dimensional surface as well as the synergistic effect caused by elements in improving the intrinsic electrocatalytic activity. This study revealed that the use of DHBT method can be used effectively to synthesizing active and cost-effective bi-functional electrocatalysts for HER-UOR.