Doctoral Dissertations

Keywords and Phrases

Energy Production; Hydrogen Evolution Reaction; Oxygen Evolution Reaction; Transition Metal Selinides; Water Splitting

Abstract

“The energy production has been depending mostly on fossil fuel which will be depleted someday in the near future. Aspects such as the loss of energy resources and destruction of the environment have motivated researchers for pursuing transition away from fossil fuels to renewable solar-fuels. Therefore, in order to meet the continuous increasing demand for energy, the hydrogen, with the largest energy density stored in it, can then efficiently be used in fuel cells without concern of contaminants. Water splitting reaction to generate H2 and O2 is one promising method of converting solar energy into fuels. The major challenge with this technology is the sluggish anodic reaction, oxygen evolution reaction (OER), in combination with the harsh conditions require special catalyst materials to mediate and expedite the reaction process. Mixed precious iridium-ruthenium oxides have been investigated as promising electrocatalysts for the OER. Lately first row transition metal chalcogenides have experienced an improving attention for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Over the course of the past two and half years, we have designed, synthesized and evaluated a series of heterogeneous water splitting catalysts based on non-precious transition metal selenides. Facile fabrication protocol of first-row transition metal selenides has been accomplished efficiently. These first-row transition metal selenides have not been widely investigated for OER till now. Therefore, their potential for electrocatalytic water splitting has not been fully explored, and much remains to be done here. The aim of this thesis was mainly to study the water splitting in particular OER with different electrocatalysts, and to investigate how the composition and structure of these catalysts influenced their catalytic performance”--Abstract, page iv.

Advisor(s)

Nath, Manashi

Committee Member(s)

Choudhury, Amitava
Winiarz, Jeffrey G.
Wang, Risheng
Liang, Xinhua

Department(s)

Chemistry

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Chemistry

Comments

This research was funded through financial support from ACS PRF (grant #54793- ND10) and Energy Research and Development Center (ERDC) at Missouri S&T.
The authors would like to acknowledge American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (54793-ND10) and Energy Development and Research Center (ERDC) at Missouri S&T for financial support.

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Fall 2017

Journal article titles appearing in thesis/dissertation

  • Nickel selenide as a high-efficiency catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction
  • Enhancing electrocatalytic activity of bifunctional Ni3Se2 for overall water splitting through etching-induced surface nanostructuring
  • Textured NiSe2 film: Bifunctional electrocatalyst for full water splitting at remarkably low overpotential with high energy efficiency
  • Cobalt selenide nanostructures: An efficient bifunctional catalyst with high current density at low coverage
  • CoNi2Se4 as an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting

Pagination

xxi, 286 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographic references.

Rights

© 2017 Abdurazag Taher Swesi, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 12055

Electronic OCLC #

1313117323

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