Strongly Coupled Nitrogen-Doped Mo2C@CoNi Alloy Hybrid Architecture toward Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Development of high-efficiency electrocatalysts for water splitting is a promising channel to produce clean hydrogen energy. Herein, we demonstrate that the combination of nitrogen-doped Mo2C and CoNi alloy to form a hybrid architecture is an effective way to produce hydrogen from electrochemical water splitting. Benefiting from a combination of mechanisms, the optimized N-Mo2C@CoNi-650 shows remarkable hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity with small overpotentials of 35, 123, and 220 mV to reach the current density of 10, 50, and 100 mA cm(-2) in alkaline media, respectively, outperforming most previously reported HER electrocatalysts. The efficient electrocatalytic performance is ascribed to the highly exposed active sites, fast reaction kinetics, and improved charge-transfer steaming from the synergistic effect between each component. This work presents a new insight into designing and preparing highly efficient electrocatalysts toward the HER.

Automated summary

The combination of nitrogen-doped Mo2C and CoNi alloy to form a hybrid architecture is an effective way to produce hydrogen through electrochemical water splitting, showing remarkable HER activity in alkaline media. The efficient electrocatalytic performance is attributed to highly exposed active sites, fast reaction kinetics, and improved charge-transfer efficiency from the synergistic effect.