High-efficient electrocatalyst of MoNi4@MoO3-x nanorod for hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline solutions

Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline media is expected to become a renewable and economical technology for hydrogen production. Various non-noble electrocatalysts have been explored for HER, in which Ni-Mo alloy is one of the best media. However, its syntheses are complicated and costly. In this work, we contribute an in-situ reduction method of porous MoNi4@MoO3-x nanorods. The synthesized MoNi4@ MoO3-x exhibits a remarkable HER activity with 10 mA/cm(2) constant current under 58.6 mV extremely low overpotential, small Tafel slope of 44.8 mV/decade, and high durability in 1 M potassium hydroxide electrolyte. Its remarkable activity is found to originate from the highly activity of MoNi4, excellent conductivity and favorable porous structure. This work is believed to provide a promising strategy for the HER development of highly active and cost-effective electrocatalysts. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

A novel in-situ reduction method was proposed to synthesize porous MoNi4@MoO3-x nanorods with remarkable HER activity. The synthesized nanomaterial exhibited extremely low overpotential, high durability, and excellent activity in alkaline electrolyte, providing a promising pathway for the development of HER electrocatalysts with high activity and cost-effectiveness.