Versatility of surfactant-mediated NiTe2 nanoparticles: unlocking potential for hydrogen evolution reaction, supercapacitor, and sustainable green catalysis

Abstract

Designing multifunctional nanomaterials is economically and practically advantageous. Herein, this work reports a surfactant-mediated synthesis of NiTe2 nanoparticles (NPs) and their applications in electrocatalysis, energy storage, and sustainable green catalysis. The NiTe2 NPs exhibit excellent hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity, with a low overpotential of 309 mV versus RHE at 10 mA cm−2 and a Tafel slope of 50 mV dec−1, indicating fast kinetics. As supercapacitor (SC) electrodes, they deliver a high specific capacitance of 620 F g−1 at 1 A g−1, retaining 62% at 10 A g−1 and 78.3% after 5000 cycles. An asymmetric coin cell (ASC) achieves 75.3 F g−1 specific capacitance, 30.6 Wh kg−1 energy density, and 914.6 W kg−1 power density, with 76.4% capacitance retention and 93.7% efficiency after 5000 cycles. Additionally, NiTe2 NPs enable the sustainable synthesis of quinolines and 2-aminoquinolines, achieving up to 97% yield under mild conditions with only 0.00563 mmol (in 10 mg) catalyst loading. These results underscore the versatility of NiTe2 NPs as a cost-effective, high-performance material for clean energy and green chemistry applications.