Synthesis of new Ni nanostructures via the organometallic approach and their applications in energy-relevant processes Aureliano Macili, Alex Mateu Sorribas, Marc Esteban Ferrera, Laia Francas Forcada, Jordi García-Antón Aviñó, Xavier Sala Roman Universitat Autonoma Barcelona, Spain Hydrogen is considered as one of the key energy carriers when designing a zero-carbon emission society, this is due to its large availability and high gravimetric energy density. Indeed, Hydrogen can be produced via electrolysis of water in a potentially renewable cycle, effectively storing the intermittent renewable energy in chemical bonds and rendering it available whenever necessary. At the time being, the main bottleneck that hinders a faster hydrogen production by electrolysis is the Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER), taking place on the anode of an electrochemical cell. In the cathode, production of hydrogen from the electrons extracted from water can be achieved. Nevertheless, it is not the only energy-relevant electrochemical process that can be exploited in the cathodic part for the reduction of carbon emissions: CO2 can also be directly reduced (CO2RR) into e-fuels or added value chemicals. All these electrochemical processes, if performed using solar generators or photoelectrodes, are generally referred to as "Artificial Photosynthesis" (AP). Ni and Ni-functionalized materials have been showing promising results as catalysts for OER [1,2] and can therefore speed up the anodic processes in AP. Moreover, some of the reported structures are expected to act as catalysts for cathodic processes, such as CO2RR [3] , possibly allowing the use of the same catalyst for both electrodes of the electrochemical cell. The Ni nanostructures presented in this work are produced via the organometallic approach [4] , a technique which consists in the decomposition of an organometallic precursor of the metal, and allows great control on the properties of the final product as well as facilitating the functionalization and the characterization of the final material. References 1. Ali Akbari, Et. Al. Sci Rep 10, 8757 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65674-x 2. Zheyin Yu, Et. Al. Nano Select (2021). https://doi.org/10.1002/nano.202100286 3. Mingwen Jia Et. Al. Chem. Sci., 2018,9, 8775-8780. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8SC03732A 4. Martí, G., et.al. Adv. Energ. Mater. 2023, DOI: 10.1002/aenm.202300282
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