A Powder Metallurgy Route to Produce Raney-Nickel Electrodes for Alkaline Water Electrolysis

Abstract

A powder metallurgy route is described as a promising route to produce highly active Raney-Ni electrodes. An expanded Ni mesh was used as metallic substrate on the surface of which Raney-Ni phases were produced via a heat-treatment step using Al powder at different loads. The overpotential at −300 mA/cm² as well as the active surface area were determined to evaluate the electrodes. The results reveal that a high Al loading is necessary to achieve a stable electrode and a high activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction.