Defect-rich engineering of Ni-incorporated tungsten oxides micro-flowers on carbon cloth: A binder-free electrode for highly efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

Hydrogen generated by electrocatalysis water splitting is a promising way to harvest clean energy. However, exploring the cheap and highly efficient electrocatalysts with Pt-like activity for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) remains great challenges. Herein, we report hierarchical Ni-incorporated oxygen vacancies-rich tungsten oxides micro-flowers on 3D conductive carbon cloth support (denoted as Ni-W H2-550) as a binder-free electrode for high efficient hydrogen evolution. The binder-free 3D structure and the synergistic effect between Niincorporated and rich oxygen vacancies can regulate the electronic structure, facilitate the electron transfer, and enlarge the exposed active sites. The as-prepared Ni-W H2-550 exhibits a low overpotential of 25 mV at 10 mA cm-2 with robust stability in alkaline electrolyte solution over 20 h. This study opens up a concise strategy toward the preparation of the low-cost and highly efficient electrocatalyst for HER.

Automated summary

This study presents a concise strategy for the preparation of a low-cost and highly efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Hierarchical Ni-incorporated oxygen vacancies-rich tungsten oxides micro-flowers on 3D conductive carbon cloth support (Ni-W H2-550) were prepared and exhibited a low overpotential and robust stability in alkaline electrolyte solution, indicating their potential application in electrocatalytic water splitting for clean energy generation.