Heteroatom-Doped Transition Metal Electrocatalysts for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

By Huanyu Jin, Xin Liu, Shuangming Chen, Anthony Vasileff, Laiquan Li, Y. Jiao, Li Song, Yao Zheng, S. Qiao. ACS Energy Letters, 2019

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Developing efficient and low-cost electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is important for clean energy systems. Non-noble transition metals are the most promising candidates for replacement of conventional Pt group catalysts for the HER. However, most non-noble metals show poor HER activity due to their intrinsic electronic structures. Herein, we use a multifaceted heteroatom doping method (nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus) to directly and continuously fine-tune the electronic structure and HER activity of non-noble metals without changing their chemical composition. As a proof-of-concept, a nitrogen and phosphorus dual-doped Ni catalyst is explored by precisely manipulating doping modes, revealing the best HER performance among all doped Ni catalysts tested. The doping-induced charge redistribution in the Ni metal significantly influences its catalytic performance for the HER in alkaline media, which is confirmed by merging theoretical calculation with synchrotron-based spectroscopy. ...

Subfields: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c128cbb783b9aab9c798ba36ff2d8dad245a5010