Fabrication and characterization of nanostructured Ni and Pd electrodes for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in water-alkaline electrolyzer

In the field of water-alkaline electrolyzer, the development of nanoporous low cost nickel electrodes is one of the potential approaches to increase electrocatalytic activity. Template electrodeposition is a facile and cheap technique for obtaining Ni nanowires (NWs) with high surface area. These nanostructures were fabricated by a two-step procedure. In the first step, a Ni compact layer was deposited on one side of the template where a gold film was previously sputtered, while, in the second-step, an ordered array of Ni-NWs was obtained by electrodeposition inside the template channels. The NWs were firmly connected to the underlying Ni layer, acting as a current collector. In order to enhance the catalytic activity, Pd nanoparticles were deposited onto the NW surface by metal displacement. All electrodes were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS). The comparison between the two types of electrodes revealed that the composite electrode (Ni+Pd) shows better electro-catalytic features, which quickly decay under operation, so that after 5 min. of polarization at a constant current in 30% w/w aqueous solution of potassium hydroxide, the other electrode performs better.