Designing smart electrodes is the key to the efficient water splitting for the production of large scale hydrogen as a clean energy source. In this study, we prepare an organic chiral molecule modified Au–Ni bilayer thin film electrode to examine the chiral induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect on water splitting. Electrodes with bilayer configuration consisting of thin Ni layer (100 nm) with an Au over layer (10 nm) are prepared on glass substrates by combined sputtering, thermal evaporation techniques. Subsequently, self-assembled monolayer of chiral L-Cysteine molecule is immobilized on the as-prepared Ni/Au surface by chemisorption method. The electrocatalytic behaviour of as-modified chiral electrodes (Ni/Au/Cys) has been investigated in 0.1 M KOH solution. Our results show that for achieving the current density of 5 mAcm⁻² the reaction over potential decreases by 390 mV while 5-fold increase in the current density value is achieved at a fixed over potential with chiral Ni/Au/Cys thin film compared to the achiral (bare) bilayer Ni/Au thin film during oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The dramatic reduction of over potential for OER has been attributed to the spin specific reaction occurring at the chiral Ni/Au/Cys electrodes during water splitting. On the other hand, we observe that there is a decrease of 260 mV over potential with more than 11-fold increase in the absolute current density value (∼153 mAcm⁻² at −0.6 V) for Ni/Au/Cys thin film than bare Ni/Au thin film in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The excellent bifunctional catalytic property of Ni/Au/Cys has been attributed to the synergistic effect of chirality and bilayer configuration present in the primary structure of cysteine molecule and Ni/Au thin films respectively.

设计智能电极是高效分解水以大规模生产氢气作为清洁能源的关键。在这项研究中，我们制备了一种有机手性分子修饰的 Au-Ni 双层薄膜电极，以检测手性诱导自旋选择性 (CISS) 对水分解的影响。通过组合溅射、热蒸发技术在玻璃基板上制备具有由薄镍层 (100 nm) 和 Au 覆盖层 (10 nm) 组成的双层配置的电极。随后，通过化学吸附法将自组装的单层手性 L-半胱氨酸分子固定在制备的 Ni/Au 表面上。已在 0.1 M KOH 溶液中研究了改性手性电极 (Ni/Au/Cys) 的电催化行为。我们的结果表明，为了实现 5 mAcm 的电流密度^-2与非手性（裸）双层 Ni/Au 薄膜相比，在固定的过电位下，手性 Ni/Au/Cys 薄膜的反应过电位降低了 390 mV，而电流密度值增加了 5 倍析氧反应 (OER)。OER 过电位的显着降低归因于水分解过程中在手性 Ni/Au/Cys 电极上发生的自旋特异性反应。另一方面，我们观察到绝对电流密度值增加了 11 倍以上（~153 mAcm ^-2在 -0.6 V 时）对于 Ni/Au/Cys 薄膜在析氢反应（HER）中比裸 Ni/Au 薄膜。Ni/Au/Cys优异的双功能催化性能归因于分别存在于半胱氨酸分子一级结构和Ni/Au薄膜中的手性和双层构型的协同效应。