Investigating activity and stability of iridium oxide-doped nickel selenide catalysts for alkaline water electrolysis

• Grant number: 23/13095-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: February 01, 2024
• End date: January 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Physical-Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Edson Antonio Ticianelli
• Grantee: Pâmella Silva Rodrigues
• Supervisor: Serhiy Cherevko
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química de São Carlos (IQSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy (HI ERN), Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/01869-7 - Investigation of Ir and Ag doped Ni and Co selenides as electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution/reduction and hydrogen evolution/oxidation reactions in alkaline media, BP.DD

Abstract

The pursuit of sustainable energy sources has spurred advances in alternative energy technologies, particularly large-scale electrocatalytic water splitting as a promising method for hydrogen production. This process involves oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), with catalytic materials at the core of electrolyzer devices. Transition Metal-based catalysts, such as nickel selenide, have been actively studied for water electrolysis because of their adequate intrinsic catalytic activity. In the current PhD project (FAPESP), it was seen that low amounts of a noble metal-based dopants (IrOx) were sufficient to modify the electronic properties of nickel selenide (NiSe2) electrodes that improves their activity. However, there is still limited experimental evidence to explain the effect of doping on stability under electrolysis conditions. Recently published studies have contributed significantly to the understanding of electrocatalysts stability using online and ex-situ inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) techniques. Therefore, this research proposal aims to fill the knowledge gap on the stability of IrOx-doped NiSe2 catalysts, and the effects of doping on the structural rearrangements and chemical transformations in catalysts under OER and HER conditions, using scanning flow cell online with ICP-MS (SFC-ICP-MS) and ex-situ ICP-MS analyses of the degradation of catalyst under realistic conditions simulated through an electrolyzer with membrane electrode assemblies (MEA). The study seeks to contribute to the understanding of electrochemical kinetics and degradation processes of materials based on transition metals, and consequently to the development of more durable and efficient electrocatalysts for water electrolysis. (AU)