Construction of pH-universal hydrogen evolution freeway in MoO3-MoNi4@Cu core–shell nanowires via synergetic electronic and geometric effect
Xiaodong Chen, Shoufu Cao, Xiaojing Lin, Xiaofei Wei, Zhaojie Wang, Hongyu Chen, Chengcheng Hao, Siyuan Liu, Shuxian Wei, Daofeng Sun, Xiaoqing Lü
Abstract
Both the adsorption/dissociation of water molecules and hydrogen intermediate (H*) are the major limitations to hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, the modulation of electronic structure and geometric configuration are combined to design one-dimensional electrocatalyst with outstanding HER activity in a wide pH range. The catalyst was composed of molybdenum trioxide doped molybdenum nickel alloy supported by copper nanowires (MoO 3 -MoNi 4 @Cu NWs). As revealed by the experimental characterizations and theoretical calculations, Cu NWs act as the electron donator to MoNi 4 , resulting in up shift of the d-band center in MoNi 4 , thus expediting H 2 O adsorption and dissociation. Moreover, the introduction of amorphous MoO 3 sets up a unique geometric configuration on MoNi 4 for the accelerated H* transfer via hydrogen-bond and hydrogen spillover. This work provides a synergetic route for constructing HER freeway and promotes further investigations on more versatile electrocatalysis involving H 2 O or H*.