TiN ceramic membrane supported nitrogen-incorporating NiCo2 nanowires as bifunctional electrode for overall water splitting in alkaline solution

Developing a highly efficient, cost-effective, and stable bifunctional electrode for both hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is still a major challenge. This work reports on a novel method for fabricating TiN ceramic membrane supported nitrogen-incorporating NiCo 2 nanowires (NiCo 2 -N/TiN) as a bifunctional electrode. Owing to its unique structure, the ample reaction sites available, and the enhanced mass/charge transport ability, the NiCo 2 -N/TiN electrode exhibits efficient catalytic performance both in HER and OER, with overpotentials of 131 mV at 20 mA·cm −2 for HER and 330 mV at 20 mA·cm −2 for OER, together with excellent stability in alkaline solution. The NiCo 2 -N/TiN electrode only requires a cell voltage of 1.71 V to drive the current density of 20 mA·cm −2 for overall water splitting, which exhibits excellent stability for more than 100000 s. Accordingly, the produced ceramic membrane electrode has a great potential for application in industrial hydrogen production.