Affiliation:
1. Key Laboratory of Polyoxometalate and Reticular Material Chemistry of Ministry of Education Faculty of Chemistry Northeast Normal University Changchun 130024 China
2. School of Materials Science and Engineering Shaanxi Normal University Xi'an 710062 China
3. State Key Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Preparative Chemistry College of Chemistry Jilin University Changchun 130012 China
Abstract
AbstractTransition metal diborides represented by MoB2 have attracted widespread attention for their excellent acidic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Nevertheless, their electrocatalytic performance is generally unsatisfactory in high‐pH electrolytes. Heterogeneous interface engineering is one of the most promising methods for optimizing the composition and structure of electrocatalysts, thereby greatly affecting their electrochemical performance. Herein, a heterostructure, composed of MoB2 and carbon nanotubes (CNTs), is rationally constructed by boronizing precursors including (NH4)4[NiH6Mo6O24]·5H2O (NiMo6) and Co complexes on the carbon cloth (Co,Ni–MoB2@CNT/CC). In this method, NiMo6 is boronized to form MoB2 by a modified molten‐salt‐assisted borothermal reduction. Meanwhile, Co catalyzes extra carbon sources to grow CNTs on the surface of MoB2. Thanks to the successful production of the heterostructure, Co,Ni–MoB2@CNT/CC exhibits remarkable HER performance with a low overpotential of 98.6, 113.0, and 73.9 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in acidic, neutral, and alkaline electrolytes, respectively. Notably, even at 500 mA cm−2, the electrochemical activity of Co,Ni–MoB2@CNT/CC exceeds that of Pt/C/CC in an alkaline solution and maintains over 50 h. Theoretical calculations reveal that the construction of the heterostructure is beneficial to both water dissociation and reactive intermediate adsorption, resulting in superior alkaline HER performance.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
Higher Education Discipline Innovation Project
Subject
Biomaterials,Biotechnology,General Materials Science,General Chemistry