Nickel-doped tungsten oxide promotes stable and efficient hydrogen evolution in seawater.

Hydrogen is considered as an efficient energy alternative, and the use of offshore wind power to electrolyze seawater to produce hydrogen will become the future model. Here, nickel-doped tungsten oxide is proposed to realize hydrogen production from seawater. Ni-WO x @NF was prepared experimentally, in which Ni was doped into WO x to replace part of the W sites. There is a volcanic relationship between the amount of Ni doping and the activity of the hydrogen evolution reaction. Particularly in alkaline seawater, Ni-WO x @NF only needs an overpotential of 45.69 mV to reach a current density of 10 mA cm−2 and exhibits stability over 120 h. In addition, theoretical calculations confirmed that Ni doping can optimize the activity of hydrogen evolution reaction. This work proposes that nickel doping can enhance the hydrogen evolution reaction activity of tungsten oxide with excellent corrosion resistance, enabling it to work efficiently and stably in alkaline seawater. [Display omitted] • Nickel enters the lattice of tungsten oxide in the form of substitutional doping. • Nickel doping optimizes the adsorption free energy of tungsten oxide. • Ni-WO x @NF exhibits excellent activity and stability in alkaline seawater. • There was a volcanic relationship between nickel doping and catalytic activity. • This strategy can guide the design of alkaline seawater hydrogen evolution catalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]