Enhanced Electrochemical Activity of NiAl Cathode for Hydrogen Production

Abstract This work is devoted to the elaboration of Ni68%Al32% wt. (NiAl) intermetallic compound highly electro-active and cost-effective electrode materials using an induction furnace utilized as cathodes in alkaline water reduction into hydrogen. The XRD analysis showed the formation of the NiAl phase with an average crystallite size of 44.13 nm. The SEM/EDS results confirm the XRD results with an average grain size of 50 µm. The chemical activation of Aluminum from NiAl was carried out on NaOH (25%) solution at 353 K for 72 h. The Optical Profilometry and UV-visible spectrophotometry confirmed the formation of Ni-Raney-type electrodes with high specific surface area. The activated NiAl electrodes resulted in remarkable efficiency for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), 13 times higher than the non-activated electrode. The comparison with literature data reveals that the efficiency of the NiAl cathode has increased by 120% compared to pure Ni.