More than physical support: The effect of nickel foam corrosion on electrocatalytic performance

Nickle foams (NFs) have been widely used as substrates to support various electrocatalysts due to their extended framework structures, low-cost and high-conductivity. At the same time, as a kind of relatively active metals, nickel substrates are also prone to get corroded or chemically etched during hydro-/solvothermal synthesis of catalyst materials. However, as far as we know, when using NFs as the scaffold to support Ni-free electrocatalysts, most of the published works overlook or even ignore the effect of nickel corrosion on the activities of electrocatalysts directly fabricated on NFs. By using a simple comparison method, we systematically studied such effects from the aspects of material-synthesis temperature, precursors and aqueous solution involved. Our results indicate that the nickel substrates do indeed corrode with ions out-diffused into the reaction solution and incorporated into the fabricated electrocatalysts, which in turn affect their electrocatalytic performances. Special cautions and considerations should be made accordingly when employing nickel foams as substrates for electrocatalysts.