Surface-assembled non-noble metal nanoscale Ni-colloidal thin-films as efficient electrocatalysts for water oxidation

A highly operative and inexpensive water oxidation scheme using an efficient nanoscale electrocatalyst is vastly demanded for optimum H(2) production, CO(2) reduction, and has attracted increased attention for chemical energy conversion. We present here a simple route to make efficient electrocatalytic colloidal nanoparticles of nickel out of mere metal ions in a simple borate buffer system. The simple and annealed Ni-colloidal nanoparticles (Ni-CNPs) resulted in a facile transformation into ultrafine films, which further activated the catalysts, while initiating OER just at the overpotential η = 250 mV (1.48 V vs. RHE) under benign conditions. They also showed high porosity and favorable kinetics while displaying impressive Tafel slopes of just 51 mV dec(−1), and a high TOF value of 0.79 s(−1) at 0.35 V was observed for Ni-CNPs/FTO(500). These electrocatalysts also showed long-term stability during the bulk water electrolysis experiment conducted for a continuous 20 hours without notable catalytic degradation, which ensures their economic benefits. The electrochemical data, CVs, kinetic study, short-term durability, extended catalytic stability, SEM analysis, and other supporting data provide compelling evidence that these non-precious, metal-based, electroactive, catalytic, colloidal thin-films (simple and annealed) with nanoscale morphological attributes presented promising catalytic performance under the conditions used herein.