Highly durable monolithic electrode for water electrolysis at industrial current densities

The development of highly durable electrode with current density over 500 mA cm−2 is the key to realize low-energy-cost industrial water electrolysis. While the dramatical gas evolution environment with high current makes the electrode more likely to suffer from severe dropping and loss of catalytic active components. Hence, it is of great significance but challenge to develop robust monolithic electrode with both high activity and durability in water electrolysis. Herein, we design an edge-rich monolithic electrode via in-situ construction of molybdenum disulfide and nickel disulfide heterogeneous interfaces on nickel foam (ER-MoSNi) for extraordinary water electrolysis. The bifunctional ER-MoSNi monolithic electrode incorporated two-electrode water electrolyzer with 1.0 M KOH solution at 25 °C requires ultralow cell voltage of 2.08 V@1000 mA cm−2, far exceeding the Pt/C supported on nickel foam as cathode and IrO2 supported on nickel foam as anode of 2.6 V@1000 mA cm−2. Moreover, the ER-MoSNi monolithic electrode can operate stably for over 2500 h at a current density of 1000 mA cm−2, which is significant super to Pt/C║IrO2. The great advantages of the ER-MoSNi monolithic electrode in the activity and durability have shown great potential in the field of industrial water electrolysis.