Highly active non-precious metal electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction based on nitrogen-doped graphene supported MoO2/WN/Mo2N

Alloying of electrocatalysts is expected to tune the electronic properties, Fermi level energy, and interatomic spacing of electrocatalysts, all of which could impact the activity of transition metal-based electrocatalysts toward the adsorbate species of interest. In this work, a number of nitrogen-doped graphene (NGR) supported MoO2/MoW nitride alloy (MoWON/NGR) nanomaterials were prepared by co-impregnation and pyrolysis of graphene oxide (GO), phosphomolybdic acid (PMA), and phosphotungstic acid (PTA) hydrate under ammonia gas. The MoWON/NGR samples as prepared exhibited significantly high hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activities in acidic solution nearly to that of commercial Pt/C electrocatalysts, with an excellent stability. The high electrocatalytic activity of MoWON/NGR arises from numerous active sites, bimetallic effect of Mo-W, the inherited electrochemical properties, more accessible active sites, and modified electronic properties. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.