Profuse Surface Activation of Ir‐Dispersed Titanium Nitride Bifunctional Electrocatalysts

Abstract

Dispersing small amounts of rare‐earth metal on the surface of metallic nitrides displays great prospects for systematic tweaking of electrocatalytic activity. Iridium (Ir)‐integrated titanium nitride nanowires (Ir‐TiN NWs) for bifunctional catalytic activities are demonstrated. To expose real electrocatalytic activity, the Ir‐TiN catalysts are characterized in conjunction with density functional theory (DFT) computations by a wide range of spectroscopic and electrochemical systems. Impressively, Ir‐TiN NWs electrocatalysts grown from titanium dioxide nanoparticles, which are capable of delivering quick hydrogen (H2) evaluation with least over‐potentials of 93 mV for 10 mA cm−2 in neutral medium. In addition, this efficient Ir‐TiN NWs delivers outstanding hydrogen evolution reaction with smaller over‐potential of 49 mV for 10 mA cm−2 in acid medium. Overall, the study highlights a novel, extremely energetic bifunctional catalyst; it proposes novel imperative perceptions into the structure and performance of bimetallic nitride electrocatalysts in wide range pH environments.

Keywords

• bifunctional catalysts
• neutral media
• oxygen evolution
• rare earth
• titanium nitride nanowires