Highly dispersed nickel nitride nanoparticles on nickel nanosheets as an active catalyst for hydrazine electrooxidation

Synthesis of high-performance and low-cost anode electrocatalysts is a central issue in the development of direct hydrazine fuel cells as a viable energy conversion technology. Herein, we report a careful study of nickel nitride as a promising catalyst towards electrooxidation of hydrazine. A hierarchically nanostructured catalyst consisting of tiny Ni 3 N nanoparticles dispersed on Ni nanosheets is synthesized using a hydrothermal method followed by nitridation treatment. The thus-prepared catalyst exhibits an impressively high activity, good durability and a nearly 100% selectivity towards hydrazine electrooxidation following the 4-electron-pathway, which compares favorably with most DHFC anode catalysts reported to date. Density functional theory calculations were conducted to further understand the outstanding performance of nickel nitride towards hydrazine electrooxidation. Tiny Ni 3 N nanoparticles dispersed on Ni nanosheets exhibit an impressively high activity towards N 2 H 4 electrooxidation.