Small-sized Ni-Co/Mo₂C/Co₆Mo₆C₂@C for efficient alkaline and acidic hydrogen evolution reaction by an anchoring calcination strategy

Abstract

A novel, cheap and highly efficient Ni-Co/Mo₂C/Co₆Mo₆C₂@C nanocomposite has been successfully constructed through simple one-step carbonization method in a nitrogen atmosphere. Polyethyleneimine in the precursor can effectively anchor molybdenum-based Keggin-type polyoxometallate and NiCo-layered double hydroxide through electrostatic and coordination interactions, which avoids the aggregation of catalyst particles during the pyrolysis process. After optimization, the obtained Ni-Co/Mo₂C/Co₆Mo₆C₂@C possesses small size (3–8 nm), large specific surface area and hierarchical pore structure. More importantly, Ni-Co/Mo₂C/Co₆Mo₆C₂@C presents remarkable hydrogen evolution reaction activity with low overpotentials in 0.5 mol·L^–1 H₂SO₄ (102.3 mV) and 1 mol·L^–1 KOH (95 mV) to afford the current density of 10 mA·cm^–2, as well as small Tafel slopes of 82.49 and 99.92 mV·dec^–1, respectively. Simultaneously, this catalyst also shows outstanding stability for 12 h without a significant change in current density. The excellent catalytic performance of Ni-Co/Mo₂C/Co₆Mo₆C₂@C can put down to the synergistic effect between multiple components and the small size of the catalyst. This work provides unique insights into the preparation of efficient transition metal-based catalysts for HER.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

polyoxometallates / layered double hydroxide / transition metal-based electrocatalysts / hydrogen evolution reaction

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Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21971032), the Youth Science Research Project of Shanxi Province (Grant No. 202103021223362), the Science and technology innovation project of higher education in Shanxi Province (Grant No. 2021L450) and the Foundation of Xinzhou Teachers University, China (Grant No. 2021KY07). This work was supported by the State Key Laboratory of Safety and Control for Chemicals [10010104-19-ZC0613-0180].

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at http://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-024-2416-2 and is accessible for authorized users.

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