Ir nanoparticles synergistically regulated by B, N Co-doping in carbon for pH-Universal bifunctional electrocatalysts towards energy-efficient hydrogen production

The ultralow-potential hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR) can be integrated with hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) to construct the overall hydrazine splitting (OHzS) system, thus realizing energy-saving hydrogen production. Meanwhile, the real electrocatalytic processes normally involve the constantly changed pH and also need to operate under different pH conditions. Therefore, designing advanced pH-universal electrocatalysts with high compatibility for HER and HzOR is of greatly practical significance. Herein, ultrafine Ir nanoparticles embedding in B, N-codoped carbon (Ir/BNC) were facilely synthesized with one Ir-based complex and boric acid by simple mixing and pyrolysis. To reach the current density of 10 mA cm−2, the bifunctional Ir/BNC merely demands the low potentials of −4.8/-6.3/-38.5 mV for HER, 7.5/157.8/330.1 mV for HzOR, and 19/236/358 mV for OHzS in the alkaline, neutral and acidic electrolytes, respectively, all greatly outperforming commercial Pt/C and displaying the huge energy-saving advantage for pH-universal hydrogen generation over the conventional water splitting. Underlyingly, the codoping of abundant B and N heteroatoms with different electronic modulation effects can play synergistical roles to Ir active sites, endowing with the pH-universal multifunctionality as well as the boosted intrinsic unit activity. Additionally, the large surface area, rich pores and highly graphitized carbon also collectively ensure the remarkable apparent performance for bifunctional HER and HzOR. This work supplies a promising strategy for exploiting pH-universal HER and HzOR bifunctional electrocatalysts, greatly potential to the practical energy-efficient hydrogen generation. © 2024 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC