Nanoporous Surface High-Entropy Alloys as Highly Efficient Multisite Electrocatalysts for Nonacidic Hydrogen Evolution Reaction |
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Authors: | Rui-Qi Yao Yi-Tong Zhou Hang Shi Wu-Bin Wan Qing-Hua Zhang Lin Gu Yong-Fu Zhu Zi Wen Xing-You Lang Qing Jiang |
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Affiliation: | 1. Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials (Jilin University), Ministry of Education and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, 130022 China;2. Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, The Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 China |
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Abstract: | Electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution in alkaline and neutral media offers the possibility of adopting platinum-free electrocatalysts for large-scale electrochemical production of pure hydrogen fuel, but most state-of-the-art electrocatalytic materials based on nonprecious transition metals operate at high overpotentials. Here, a monolithic nanoporous multielemental CuAlNiMoFe electrode with electroactive high-entropy CuNiMoFe surface is reported to hold great promise as cost-effective electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline and neutral media. By virtue of a surface high-entropy alloy composed of dissimilar Cu, Ni, Mo, and Fe metals offering bifunctional electrocatalytic sites with enhanced kinetics for water dissociation and adsorption/desorption of reactive hydrogen intermediates, and hierarchical nanoporous Cu scaffold facilitating electron transfer/mass transport, the nanoporous CuAlNiMoFe electrode exhibits superior nonacidic HER electrocatalysis. It only takes overpotentials as low as ≈240 and ≈183 mV to reach current densities of ≈1840 and ≈100 mA cm?2 in 1 m KOH and pH 7 buffer electrolytes, respectively; ≈46- and ≈14-fold higher than those of ternary CuAlNi electrode with bimetallic Cu–Ni surface alloy. The outstanding electrocatalytic properties make nonprecious multielemental alloys attractive candidates as high-performance nonacidic HER electrocatalytic electrodes in water electrolysis. |
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Keywords: | electrocatalysts high-entropy alloys hydrogen evolution reaction multielemental alloys nanoporous metals |
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