Earth-Abundant Metal Pyrites (FeS2, CoS2, NiS2, and Their Alloys) for Highly Efficient Hydrogen Evolution and Polysulfide Reduction Electrocatalysis

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Ding, Qi Jin, Song
Copyright Year	2014
Abstract	Many materials have been explored as potential hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts to generate clean hydrogen fuel via water electrolysis, but none so far compete with the highly efficient and stable (but cost prohibitive) noble metals. Similarly, noble metals often excel as electrocatalytic counter electrode materials in regenerative liquid-junction photoelectrochemical solar cells, such as quantum dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs) that employ the sulfide/polysulfide redox electrolyte as the hole mediator. Here, we systematically investigate thin films of the earth-abundant pyrite-phase transition metal disulfides (FeS2, CoS2, NiS2, and their alloys) as promising alternative electrocatalysts for both the HER and polysulfide reduction. Their electrocatalytic activity toward the HER is correlated to their composition and morphology. The emergent trends in their performance suggest that cobalt plays an important role in facilitating the HER, with CoS2 exhibiting highest overall performance. Additionally, we demonstrate the high activity of the transition metal pyrites toward polysulfide reduction and highlight the particularly high intrinsic activity of NiS2, which could enable improved QDSSC performance. Furthermore, structural disorder introduced by alloying different transition metal pyrites could increase their areal density of active sites for catalysis, leading to enhanced performance.
Starting Page	21347
Ending Page	21356
Page Count	10
File Format	PDF HTM / HTML
Alternate Webpage(s)	http://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/7b/f7/jp506288w.PMC4167051.pdf
PubMed reference number	25247028v1
Volume Number	118
Journal	The journal of physical chemistry. C, Nanomaterials and interfaces
Language	English
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Alloys Biological Evolution Catalysis Cobalt Disulfides Electrolysis Exhibits as Topic Mediator brand of benfluorex hydrochloride Metals Phase Transition Quantum Dots Sulfides Toxic effect of heavy metal Transition Elements negative regulation of hydrogen sulfide biosynthetic process polysulfide pyrite sequestering of metal ion
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article