Elucidating catalytic sites governing the performance toward the hydrogen evolution reaction in ternary nitride electrocatalysts

Sun, Y., Sviridova, E., Kamp, M., Zhang, J., Kienle, L., Moran, D. A.J. , Guselnikova, O. and Ganin, A. Y. (2023) Elucidating catalytic sites governing the performance toward the hydrogen evolution reaction in ternary nitride electrocatalysts. ACS Applied Energy Materials, 6(3), pp. 1265-1273. (doi: 10.1021/acsaem.2c02941)

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Abstract

Proton exchange membrane electrolyzers are considered the most advanced devices for producing green hydrogen by water electrolysis. Their development requires catalytic materials that are stable under acidic conditions and drive the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) forward efficiently which makes research into the identification of the catalytic sites important. We report that free-standing Co2Mo3N and Ni2Mo3N achieve overpotentials of 149 ± 8 and 158 ± 10 mV (in 0.5 M H2SO4) at a benchmark current density of 10 mA cm–2. Both nitrides remained stable and consistently deliver current densities >500 mA cm–2 at a potential as low as 308 ± 22 mV when they were immobilized on nickel foam. Replacing Ni for Fe in Ni2Mo3N leads to FexNi2–xMo3N (0.5 ≤ x ≤ 1.25) that show a decrease in catalytic activity as the value of x increases which confirms that Ni (rather than Mo and N) sites are catalytically active. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data additionally suggests that preserving the low oxidation states of transition metals in the nitrides is important for achieving good catalytic performance toward the HER in acidic electrolytes.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Zhang, Jingyi and Ganin, Dr Alexey and Sviridova, Elizaveta and Moran, Professor David and Sun, Youyi
Authors: Sun, Y., Sviridova, E., Kamp, M., Zhang, J., Kienle, L., Moran, D. A.J., Guselnikova, O., and Ganin, A. Y.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Chemistry
College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering
Journal Name:ACS Applied Energy Materials
Publisher:American Chemical Society
ISSN:2574-0962
ISSN (Online):2574-0962
Published Online:18 January 2023
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2023 The Authors
First Published:First published in ACS Applied Energy Materials 6(3): 1265-1273
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

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