Metal-Inorganic Nickel Complexes-Derived Nanostructured Nickel Oxide as an Efficient Water Oxidation Catalyst

Abstract

Hydrogen production by electrolysis of water is a potential method for generating hydrogen as a future fuel. In electrolysis reaction, the water oxidation reaction is an energetically demanding reaction and often needs a catalyst to accomplish this reaction at lower overpotentials. The present work demonstrates nickel inorganic complex [Ni(NH3)6]2+ as an efficient precursor for the nickel hydroxide synthesis under hydrothermal conditions. Nickel hydroxide synthesized using metal salt [Ni(NO3)2] and ligand (-ammonia; NH3 in separate experiments) under similar experimental conditions results in metal hydroxide with different morphology and surface area. The obtained nickel hydroxide was characterized using X-ray diffractogram, scanning electron microscope, BET, and electrochemical methods. Nanostructured nickel hydroxide obtained from the different metal precursors showed electrocatalytic performance following trend [Ni(NH3)6]2+ > [Ni (NO3)2].