Promoted electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance by constructing Ni12P5–Ni2P heterointerfaces

Transition metal phosphides (TMPs) have been considered as cheap alternatives of precious metal platinum for electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In the past decades, many reports have indicated that the engineering of heterointerfaces between different components could efficiently enhance the activity of HER catalysts. Here, we report a facile method to construct Ni₁₂P₅–Ni₂P heterostructure by using a low temperature phosphorization strategy. The obtained Ni₁₂P₅–Ni₂P heterostructure shows high activity toward HER with an overpotential value of 166 mV at 10 mA cm^?2 and a Tafel slope of 60 mV dec^?1 in 0.5 M H₂SO₄. Compared with pure Ni₂P and Ni₁₂P₅, the Ni₁₂P₅–Ni₂P heterostructure has more active sites and faster HER kinetics due to the presence of the interfaces between Ni₁₂P₅ and Ni₂P. Furthermore, we used the obtained Ni₁₂P₅–Ni₂P as cathodic catalyst and IrO₂/Ti as anodic material to set up a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer which shows good stability after 120 h continuous constant current electrolysis at 200 mA cm^?2. This work demonstrates the positive effect of heterostructure for HER catalysts and provides a feasible strategy for constructing earth-abundant electrocatalysts.     

Accelerate the alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction of the heterostructural Ni2P@Ni(OH)2/NF by dispersing a trifle of Ru on the surface

Electrocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen production plays a vital role in the development of new energy field, but there is still a lack of low-content precious metal or cost-effective non-noble metal catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Therefore, how to develop the catalysts with a smaller amount of precious metal to achieve higher performance is still a major challenge. Herein, we have fabricated Ru–Ni₂P@Ni(OH)₂/NF-2 heterostructure by phosphating Ni(OH)₂/NF and then anchoring Ru on the surface through wet chemical strategy. Benefiting from its optimal ΔG_H1 and synergistic effect, this Ru–Ni₂P@Ni(OH)₂/NF-2 catalyst shows superior electrocatalytic HER kinetics in alkaline electrolyte. A small overpotential of 31 mV is needed for this electrocatalyst to obtain the current densities of 10 mA cm^?2 with remarkable durability over 24 h. This work provides a new strategy for the preparation of effective HER electrocatalyst with a low precious metal content.     

Synthesis of highly active and stable Pd/C catalysts toward HCOOH dehydrogenation by a simple NH3 adsorption method

Pd catalysts supported on activated carbon (Pd/C–NH₃) toward HCOOH dehydrogenation were prepared by a simple adsorption method using ammonia (NH₃) and Ar as the working gas. The results show that the TOF_initial of Pd/C–NH₃ was 459.8 h⁻¹ at 50 °C. When the reaction was carried out for 4 h, the HCOOH dehydrogenation ratio over Pd/C–NH₃ was about 81.2%, which was 1.15 and 1.13 times, respectively, as that of the as-prepared Pd/C catalyst without any treatment (Pd/C–As) and the Pd/C catalyst purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (Pd/C-CM). The total amount of H₂ and CO₂ produced by using Pd/C–NH₃ to decompose HCOOH in the third cycle was 99.4% of the gas produced by the first reaction cycle, and 1.80 and 12.60 times, respectively, as that of Pd/C–As and Pd/C-CM. The characterization results indicated that the Pd active species in Pd/C–NH₃ migrated to the outer surface of the carbon support during the reaction, and the pore volume of the carbon support became larger, which were beneficial to the reaction. These factors made Pd/C–NH₃ exhibit excellent HCOOH dehydrogenation activity and stability. NH₃ adsorption is a simple and effective method for preparing high-performance Pd/C HCOOH dehydrogenation catalysts, and has important guiding significance for the preparation of other carbon supported noble metal catalysts.     

Fabrication of P-doped Co9S8/g-C3N4 heterojunction for excellent photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Developing lower-cost and higher-efficient photocatalysts is still a major challenge for the solar to hydrogen energy conversion by photocatalytic water splitting. Herein, P-doped Co₉S₈ (P–Co₉S₈) was synthesized by a hydrothermal process using low-cost RP as raw material, and then P–Co₉S₈ was employed to construct heterojunction with g-C₃N₄ via a mechanical-mixing method. Investigation shows that P–Co₉S₈ can not only improve the electrical conductivity and surface area of the composite, but also can lower the over-potential of H₂ evolution, leading to an enhanced H₂ evolution kinetics. The H₂ evolution rate of resultant 25% P–Co₉S₈/g-C₃N₄ reached 4362 μmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹ under UV and visible light, being nearly 121.2 times higher than that of g-C₃N₄. The charge transfer between P–Co₉S₈ and g-C₃N₄ follows the Type-I route based on the photoelectrochemical analysis, leading to more electrons on the conduction band of P–Co₉S₈ to participate the H₂ evolution processes. This work provides a new way for preparation of P-doped sulfides with potential applications in the field of photocatalysis.     

Nickel/Cobalt nanoparticles for electrochemical production of hydrogen

The electrolytic production of hydrogen (POH) from alkaline water electrolysis is at the forefront of technology for alternative energy sources of the future. The present work evaluates the improvement of electro-catalytic activity (ECA) on Ni electrodes for the POH by electrodeposition of cobalt (Co). Tests were conducted in alkaline solution and the ECA of Ni and Ni–Co electrodes for the POH were compared using alternative and direct current techniques. Tafel polarization tests exemplified a significant improvement in the ECA of the bimetallic electrode (Ni–Co) compared with the Ni-electrode. Besides, the bimetallic electrode required less input overpotential energy (η) for the given POH rate under constant current density. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) revealed a significant increase in the number of electrochemical active sites and changed the surface morphology following the electrodeposition of Co over Ni electrodes.     

Graphene‐based ternary composites for supercapacitors

The research on electrode materials for supercapacitor application continues to evolve as the request of high‐energy storage system has increased globally due to the demand for energy consumption. Over the past decades, various types of carbon‐based materials have been employed as electrode materials for high‐performance supercapacitor application. Among them, graphene is 1 of the most widely used carbon‐based materials due to its excellent properties including high surface area and excellent conductivity. To exploit more of its interesting properties, graphene is tailored to produce graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide to improve the dispersibility in water and easy to be incorporated with other materials to form binary composites or even ternary composites. Nowadays, ternary composites have attracted enormous interest as 2 materials (binary composites) cannot satisfy the requirement of the high‐performance supercapacitor. Thus, many approaches have been employed to fabricate ternary composites by combining 3 different types of electroactive materials for high‐performance supercapacitor application. This review focuses on the supercapacitive performance of graphene‐based ternary composites with different types of active materials, ie, conducting polymers, metal oxide, and other carbon‐based materials.     

Predicting the density of molten alloys using computational thermodynamics

The density of a molten alloy can be calculated from the quotient of its molar mass divided by its molar volume. The molar volume of a molten alloy, however, often deviates from the average of the molar volumes of its constituents. The deviation is caused mainly by the affinity (or lack of it) between dissimilar atoms, which can be quantified by the enthalpy of mixing. Up to now, the link between the enthalpy of mixing and the volume change has been determined empirically through the regression of experimental measurements of alloy densities. In the present study, the derivative of molar volume with respect to enthalpy was deduced and the molar volumes of molten alloys were computed entirely based on the properties of pure elements and the enthalpy of mixing of the alloys. The very slight increase in the packing density due to the size difference of different atoms was also considered. The effect of cluster formation due to short range ordering was also addressed. Over six hundred data points were used in validations. Excellent agreements were achieved between the calculated values and the experimental measurements.     

Optical in-process height measurement system for process control of laser metal-wire deposition

We propose an in-process height measurement system for a weld bead and feedback control system for wire-feeding speed for high-quality laser deposition. Metal additive manufacturing, especially laser metal-wire deposition, is effective for complex shape fabrication and repair processing. However, we must control the gap between a weld bead and a feed wire in an optimal range for high-quality deposition. Conventionally, the Z-stage pitch for multi-layer deposition must be precisely adjusted by each deposition shape. In this paper, we design an in-process height measurement system that is integrated in a laser processing head, which measures the weld bead height by a line section method. We decreased the influence of the intense thermal radiation generated from a melt pool by inserting the band-pass filter of the line beam's wavelength in the imaging system and optimizing its line laser power. Consequently, our system can measure the weld bead height near the melt pool, which is 4 mm in front of it. Next we show that our proposed system can measure the weld bead height during wire-laser metal deposition with 50-μm accuracy by comparing its value to the true value. Finally, we achieved a cylinder shape deposition of 50-mm height, regardless of the Z-stage pitch and the cylinder diameter of the multi-layer deposition, by controlling the wire-feeding speed based on the measured weld bead height.     

基于步冷试验的2.25Cr-1Mo-0.25V钢母材及焊缝回火脆化研究

对原始态、步冷态、脱脆态和脱脆步冷态2.25Cr-1Mo-0.25V钢母材及焊缝冲击试验结果进行分析,得到了母材和焊缝在不同状态下的韧脆转变温度vTr54.2和FATT以及脆化度ΔvTr54.2和ΔFATT。试验结果表明,步冷试验之后,母材发生较低程度脆化或脱脆现象,但是脆化度或脱脆度较低,表明母材具有良好的抗回火脆化性能;经脱脆试验后,母材和焊缝都发生较高程度的脱脆,表明材料的脆化主要是由于回火脆化引起的,脱脆试验使得材料的韧脆转变温度降低;脱脆步冷试验后,焊缝发生较高程度的脆化,焊缝对脱脆步冷试验的敏感性较高,脱脆步冷试验有效促进了焊缝的脆化。在相同脆化条件下,母材的脆化敏感性低于焊缝,焊缝更易发生脆化。