Boron-based materials modified on the surface of TiO2 nanorods via electroless plating toward high-efficient solar-driven water splitting

One formidable challenge to realize high efficiency and long-term stability of seawater electrolysis for hydrogen production is to improve the catalytic activities, corrosion resistance and stability of electrodes. Therefore, a 2D self-supporting bifunctional electrode with excellent stability was designed to efficiently produce hydrogen. Specifically, TiO2 nanorods supported on corrosion-resistant Ti plate (Ti/TiO2) was firstly prepared by one-step alkaline etching and then cellular NiBx catalytic materials were gently modified on Ti/TiO2 by simple electroless plating to obtain Ti/TiO2@NiBx self-supporting electrode. The photoelectrocatalytic performance of the highly-active electrode during Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and overall seawater splitting at 10 mA cm−2 were increased by 16.2%, 14.7% and 4.4%, respectively. In the meantime, Ti/TiO2@NiBx continuously electrolyzed over 72 h during HER at the industrial-grade current density (500 mA cm−2) due to the high corrosion resistance of TiO2, the increased specific surface area originated from the modification of amorphous NiBx, which promoted the effective separation of electron-hole pairs in the TiO2 semiconductor structure, and achieved high-efficient seawater electrolysis. Therefore, this work proposed a simple route for preparing catalytic electrodes with high activity and outstanding stability, and also provided theoretical supports for practical application of producing high-purity hydrogen from seawater by highly-efficient photoelectrocatalysis system.