The nice work of Ram Kumar has been accepted for publication in Nanoscale! In this paper, we tune molten salts synthesis pathways in order design nanoparticles of nickel silicides. We show that these nanoparticles undergo surface transformation upon exposure to water and oxidative electrochemical potential, so that a thin layer of nickel oxyhydroxide forms at their surface. This layer is an active electrocatalyst for water oxidation, while the silicide particles core remains intact and provides fast charge transfer. The material shows surprising long term stability under operation of water oxidation. A nice collaboration with the RMES team of LCMCP, the LRS lab at Sorbonne University, and University of Strasbourg.
Phase selective synthesis of nickel silicide nanocrystals in molten salts for electrocatalysis of the oxygen evolution reaction, R. Kumar, M. Bahri, Y. Song, F. Gonell, C. Thomas, O. Ersen, C. Sanchez, C. Laberty-Robert, D. Portehault*, Nanoscale, DOI: 10.1039/D0NR04284F