Development of a highly stable nickel-foam-based boron monosulfide–graphene electrocatalyst with a high current density for the oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract

As an important part of water splitting, the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) requires efficient, low-cost, and stable catalysts to overcome its sluggish kinetic barrier. In this study, based on previously reported OER catalyst materials of boron monosulfide mixed with graphene (r-BS+G), nickel foam (NF) is introduced as a supporting material for an r-BS+G electrocatalyst. The resulting r-BS+G-NF exhibits a very low overpotential at 10 (245 mV), 100 (308 mV), and 500 (405 mV) mA cm−2, with a low Tafel slope (56 mV dec−1). In addition, r-BS+G-NF exhibits high durability and can maintain high activity for more than 100 h at 100 mA cm−2. This is in sharp contrast to the catalyst without graphene (r-BS+NF), which shows lower durability. The results suggest that the unique morphology of the NF provides a large electrochemically active area and exposes more active sites on the surface of the prepared electrocatalyst, while the flexible graphene sheets play an important role as a support for effectively combining r-BS and NF. Consequently, the self-supporting structure can improve the OER performance as well as stability. Therefore, this study provides a promising strategy for use as an efficient and stable OER catalyst at high current densities.