Porous amorphous metallic electrocatalytic materials for water electrolysis

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11339486-B2
Application number	US-202016815553-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 11, 2020
Priority date	Mar 11, 2019
Publication date	May 24, 2022
Grant date	May 24, 2022

Abstract

An electrocatalytic material includes a bulk material metal including at least one metal, wherein the bulk material metal is in an amorphous form and includes mesopores. A method for making an electrocatalytic material includes forming an amorphous bulk material metal, and forming mesopores in the amorphous bulk material metal. The bulk material metal may in some instances be selected from an alloy of at least one metal and at least one non-metal selected from phosphorus, boron, nitrogen, carbon, and any combination thereof. The at least one metal may in some instances be selected from iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, titanium, manganese, molybdenum, niobium, zirconium, and any combination thereof.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electrocatalytic material comprising:
a bulk material metal including at least one metal, wherein the bulk material metal is selected from an alloy of at least one metal and at least two or more non-metals selected from phosphorus, boron, nitrogen, and carbon, and wherein the bulk material metal has a ratio of metal to non-metal of from 3:1 to 1:3;
wherein the bulk material metal is in an amorphous form and includes mesopores; and
wherein at least a surface portion of the electrocatalytic material is an oxidized layer, wherein the oxidized layer forms a shell over the bulk material metal, wherein the mesopores are disposed in the oxidized layer, wherein the electrocatalytic material is characterized by a porosity of from 0.01 m 2 /g to 100 m 2 /g, and wherein the bulk material metal is a core having lower ohmic resistance than the shell.

2. The electrocatalytic material of claim 1 , wherein the at least one metal is selected from iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, titanium, manganese, molybdenum, niobium, zirconium, and any combination thereof.

3. The electrocatalytic material of claim 2 , wherein the bulk material metal is NiFePB.

4. The electrocatalytic material of claim 1 , wherein the shell protects the core from further oxidation.

5. The electrocatalytic material of claim 1 , wherein the at least two or more non-metals are phosphorus and boron.

6. A method for producing hydrogen gas comprising:
providing a reactor;
wherein the reactor further comprises:
an anode;
a cathode; and
an alkaline electrolyte;

wherein the anode is an electrocatalytic material comprising
a bulk material metal including at least one metal, wherein the bulk material metal is selected from an alloy of at least one metal and at least two or more non-metals selected from phosphorus, boron, nitrogen, and carbon, and wherein the bulk material metal has a ratio of metal to non-metal of from 3:1 to 1:3;
wherein the bulk material metal is in an amorphous form and includes mesopores; and
wherein at least a surface portion of the electrocatalytic material is an oxidized layer, wherein the oxidized layer forms a shell over the bulk material metal, wherein the mesopores are disposed in the oxidized layer, wherein the electrocatalytic material is characterized by a porosity of from 0.01 m 2 /g to 100 m 2 /g, and wherein the bulk material metal is a core having lower ohmic resistance than the shell; and

performing an alkaline electrolysis reaction to produce hydrogen gas.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the porous amorphous bulk material metal has a thickness and a width and a thickness to width ratio of from 1:100 to 1:1,000,000.

8. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the shell protects the core from further oxidation.

Assignees

• Peng Zhenmeng
• Hu Fei
• Univ Akron

Inventors

• Peng Zhenmeng
• Hu Fei

Classifications

• C25B1/04 Primary

  by electrolysis of water · CPC title

• C25B9/17

  Cells comprising dimensionally-stable non-movable electrodes; Assemblies of constructional parts thereof · CPC title

• C25B11/031

  Porous electrodes · CPC title

• C25B11/061 Primary

  Metal or alloy · CPC title

• Y02E60/36

  Hydrogen production from non-carbon containing sources, e.g. by water electrolysis · CPC title