The effect of structural dimensionality on the electrocatalytic properties of the nickel selenide phase

Nickel selenide (NiSe) nanostructures possessing different morphologies of wires, spheres and hexagons are synthesized by varying the selenium precursors, selenourea, selenium dioxide (SeO2) and potassium selenocyanate (KSeCN), respectively, and are characterized using X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy techniques. Electrical measurements of a single nanowire and a hexagon carried out on devices fabricated by the focused ion beam (FIB) technique depict the semiconducting nature of NiSe and its ability to act as a visible light photodetector. The three different morphologies are used as catalysts for hydrogen evolution (HER), oxygen reduction (ORR) and glucose oxidation reactions. The wire morphology is found to be better than that of spheres and hexagons for all the reactions. Among the reactions studied, NiSe is found to be good for HER and glucose oxidation while ORR seems to terminate at the peroxide stage.