Hierarchically Porous Nickel Self-Supporting Hydrogen Evolution Electrode Synthesized by Hydrogen Bubble Templating Method – Background With the growing global attention to environmental protection, reducing carbon emissions has become the key to addressing climate change. Hydrogen energy’s combustion product is only water without greenhouse gas emissions, and it has enormous emission reduction potential in fields such as transportation and industrial production. It is one of the important means to achieve the global carbon neutrality goal. The application scenarios of hydrogen energy are constantly expanding, and the market demand is growing steadily. |  |
Hierarchically Porous Nickel Self-Supporting Hydrogen Evolution Electrode Synthesized by Hydrogen Bubble Templating Method – Preparation Process
Pretreatment of Nickel Foam Substrate：Treat the nickel foam sequentially with acetone ultrasonic cleaning, dilute hydrochloric acid treatment, and ultrapure water rinsing to remove oil stains, oxides, and residual impurities on the surface.
Preparation of Hierarchically Porous Nickel via Electrodeposition：Adopt a two-electrode system, with the pretreated nickel foam as the working electrode and a platinum sheet as the counter electrode, and perform electrodeposition using a nickel metal salt electroplating solution. Apply a relatively large current density (generally 0.5-1A/cm²) to the anode and cathode to promote the cathodic hydrogen evolution side reaction while metal deposition occurs. The dynamic hydrogen bubbles generated by the side reaction act as templates for metal deposition. As electrodeposition proceeds, nickel metal deposits around the hydrogen bubbles, and vacancies are left after the bubbles detach from the electrode surface, thereby forming a nickel deposition layer with a hierarchically porous structure.
Preparation process and morphological structure of graded porous nickel self-supporting hydrogen evolution electrode
Significance of Hierarchically Porous Nickel Self-Supporting Hydrogen Evolution Electrode Synthesized by Hydrogen Bubble Templating Method The use of non-precious metal nickel ensures the low-cost preparation of catalytic materials. The hierarchically porous structure fully exposes reaction active sites and creates an efficient three-phase reaction region conducive to electron transfer, ion transport, and gas product diffusion, thereby achieving hydrogen evolution with large current density at low overpotential. Currently, the hierarchically porous nickel electrode has demonstrated promising practical application scenarios. Its performance is close to that of the commercially applied Raney nickel electrode, and the electrode has achieved large-area preparation and successful integration into alkaline electrolyzers. |  Industrial condition performance testing and large-area preparation of graded porous nickel electrodes
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