SYNTHESIS OF NICKEL SULFIDE-BASED MATERIALS FOR ELECTROCHEMICAL AND PHOTOELECTROCHEMICAL WATER SPLITTING

Abstract

The world is in search of greatly efficacious catalytically active materials to produce ad store sustainable fuels, i.e., H2 gas. The continuous depletion of fossil fuels and the associated environmental pollution is causing serious concerns to scientists in the energy field to design alternative fuel-producing ways to fulfill global energy demand. The reproducibility, sustainability, cost-effectiveness, environment-friendly, and easy-to-store are the few qualities of alternative fuels. The zero-carbon emission with lesser cost and renewability of H2 gas is thought to be the best way of storing energy in the form of a chemical bond. The H2 generation reaction needs catalysts for its successful completion. The recent advancement in this field involves the utilization of pnictides and chalcogenides for electrocatalysis and photoelectrocatalysis. Herein, the research project consists of the synthesis of nickel sulfide-based materials for electrocatalysis and photoelectrocatalysis to break water into its constituents. The synthesis methods employed are the chemical bath deposition (CBD) method, hydrothermal (HT) synthesis, and solvothermal (ST) synthesis. The material characterization was done by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), UV-Visible spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and infra-red (IR) spectroscopy. The catalytic samples were optimized for reaction conditions and found to be efficient and stable for electrochemical and photoelectrochemical water splitting. Hence, the as-fabricated catalysts can be employed on a greater scale to check their industrial implementation leading to the enhanced production of renewable hydrogen for the fulfillment of global energy demand.