Termination-acidity tailoring of molybdenum carbides for alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction

Zhigang Chen, Minghao Yang, Yifan Li, Wenbin Gong, Juan Wang, Tong Liu, Chunyu Zhang, Shuang Hou, Guang Yang, Hao Li, Ye Jin, Chunyan Zhang, Zhongqing Tian, Fancheng Meng and Yi Cui ()
Additional contact information
Zhigang Chen: Chongqing University of Technology
Minghao Yang: Chongqing University of Technology
Yifan Li: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wenbin Gong: Xuzhou University of Technology
Juan Wang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Tong Liu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Chunyu Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Shuang Hou: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Guang Yang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Hao Li: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Ye Jin: Chongqing University of Technology
Chunyan Zhang: Chongqing University of Technology
Zhongqing Tian: Chongqing University of Technology
Fancheng Meng: Chongqing University of Technology
Yi Cui: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract Transition-metal carbides have been advocated as the promising alternatives to noble-metal platinum-based catalysts in electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction over half a century. However, the effectiveness of transition-metal carbides catalyzing hydrogen evolution in high-pH electrolyte is severely compromised due to the lowered proton activity and intractable alkaline-leaching issue of transition-metal centers. Herein, on the basis of validation of molybdenum-carbide model-catalyst system by taking advantage of surface science techniques, Mo2C micro-size spheres terminated by Al3+ doped MoO2 layer exhibit a notable performance of alkaline hydrogen evolution with a near-zero onset-potential, a low overpotential (40 mV) at a typical current density of 10 mA/cm2, and a small Tafel slope (45 mV/dec), as well as a long-term stability for continuous hydrogen production over 200 h. Advanced morphology and spectroscopy characterizations demonstrate that the local -Al-OH-Mo- structures within Al-MoO2 terminations serve as strong Brønsted acid sites that accelerate the deprotonation kinetics in alkaline HER process. Our work paves an interesting termination-acidity-tailoring strategy to explore cost-effective catalysts towards water electrolysis and beyond.

Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-55854-6 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-55854-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-55854-6

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().