Boosting the Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution Reaction at High Current Density by Porous Cheap Metal Membrane Electrodes

Developing an economical, efficient, and durable electrode with a customized size that performs well at high current density is highly demanded to satisfy large-scale hydrogen production via electrochemical water splitting. Accordingly, porous cheap metal (for example, Ni, Cu and stainless steel) membrane electrodes have been fabricated by a facile phase inversion tape casting (PT) and atmosphere heat-treatment (reducing in 5%H2–Ar or NH3) technique to electrocatalyze the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline media. The optimal Ni(R)-PT-N membrane electrode requires a low HER overpotential of only 286 mV to reach a high current density of 200 mA cm–2, outperforming commercial Ni foam. The excellent HER activity of a metallic Ni-based membrane electrode could be attributed to its unique large straight finger-like open pores and abundant active sites derived from the introduction of nanocrystalline Ni or a nitriding process, thus boosting the mass transport as well as the charge transfer kinetics during the alkaline HER process. This work represents an important step in the development of cheap-metal-based membrane electrodes to promote the energy-related reactions such as HER.