HER catalytic activity of electrodeposited Ni-P nanowires under the influence of magnetic field

Abstract

Nickel alloy electrodes both in plane and nanowire morphologies were fabricated by electrodeposition in sulfamate bath. With the increasing concentration of phosphorous acid in the electrolyte, the P content in the deposition increased accordingly. In the meantime, the grain refined and even became amorphous in microstructure as the P content was raised. For the nanowire electrode, vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) measurement showed that its coercivity was anisotropic and decreased with P-content. In addition, the easy axis for magnetization of the electrode was parallel to the axial direction of nanowire. The electrocatalytic activity measurement of the electrode in 0.5 M H2SO4 electrolyte showed that the nanowire electrode had higher activity than the plane one, and the alloying of P in Ni electrode raised its hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance. The enhanced performance of nanowire electrode was attributed to the smaller and more uniform hydrogen bubbles generated in HER reaction. Finally, the applied magnetic field (3.2 T) improved significantly the HER activity of Ni but not Ni-P electrode. By using nanowire morphology and applying magnetic field, the current density at -0.75 V HER stability test of the Ni electrode increased fourfold more than its plane counterpart. © 2013 Hung-Bin Lee et al.