Nonprecious metals based electrocatalysts are highly anticipated in electrocatalytic water splitting as the increasing energy demand can be handled by large scale H₂ production with minimum expenses. Herein, a facile and faster nickelo-sulfurization of DNA in ambient conditions has been developed that resulted in NiS anchored wirelike assemblies of DNA. The effect of DNA concentration on material stability and electrocatalytic activity was studied, and it was found that, with DNA to Ni²⁺ ratios of 0.048 and 0.072 M, the NiS anchored DNA colloidal solutions were stable. In addition, it was found that NiS(0.048) with a relatively lower DNA concentration showed better oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity than NiS(0.072). Overpotentials of 352 and 401 mV were required by NiS(0.048) and NiS(0.072) to deliver a current density of 10 mA cm^–2 even with an ultralow quantity of NiS(0.0123 mg cm^–2) in both. The same trend was reflected in the Tafel slopes of NiS(0.048) and NiS(0.072) which showed 58.6 and 112.4 mV dec^–1 indicating that the optimum ratio for better OER activity is 0.048. In this study, DNA plays a versatile role such as acting as a stabilizer, scaffold, and a microstructural stage for NiS in solution. Moreover, DNA also acts as an efficient binder and as a conductor of both ions and electrons in its OER activity trend. The proposed method can be used for preparing stable colloids of other metal sulfide based nano-electro-catalysts and can directly be employed for water oxidation in alkaline conditions.

中文翻译：

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DNA的尼克硫磺化导致低镍含量的高效碱性水氧化电催化剂

非贵金属基电催化剂在电催化水分解中备受期待，因为可以通过以最少的费用大规模生产H ₂来满足不断增长的能源需求。在此，已经开发出在环境条件下DNA的容易且快速的镍-硫磺化，其导致DNA的NiS锚定的线状组装。研究了DNA浓度对材料稳定性和电催化活性的影响，发现DNA对Ni ^2+的影响在0.048和0.072M的比率下，NiS锚定的DNA胶体溶液是稳定的。另外，发现具有较低DNA浓度的NiS（0.048）比NiS（0.072）具有更好的氧释放反应（OER）活性。NiS（0.048）和NiS（0.072）要求352和401 mV的超电势才能提供10 mA cm ^-2的电流密度，即使在这两种情况下都具有极低的NiS（0.0123 mg cm ^-2）。NiS（0.048）和NiS（0.072）的Tafel斜率反映出相同的趋势，显示58.6和112.4 mV dec ^–1表明最佳OER活性的最佳比例为0.048。在这项研究中，DNA发挥了多种作用，例如充当溶液中NiS的稳定剂，支架和微观结构阶段。此外，DNA在其OER活性趋势中还可以充当有效的粘合剂和离子和电子的导体。所提出的方法可用于制备其他基于金属硫化物的纳米电子催化剂的稳定胶体，并可直接用于碱性条件下的水氧化。