Simple and Fast Synthesis of Ni/NiO-loaded Carbon Nanotubes for the Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

At present, there are still challenges in the efficient synthesis of catalysts for water splitting hydrogen evolution. We propose herein a high-efficiency strategy to simply and quickly synthesize composites of Ni/NiO and carbon nanotubes. The Ni/NiO-loaded carbon nanotubes are prepared by oxidative combustion of ethanol over a metal-based catalyst and exhibit excellent catalytic performance for alkaline water splitting hydrogen evolution with 129 mV overpotential to offer a current density of 10 mA cm(-2). Meanwhile, the Ni/NiO-loaded carbon nanotubes also exhibit good stability. The Ni/NiO-loaded carbon nanotubes obtained by the simple and fast preparation thus could be a promising electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution rection.