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Nano Research 2021, 14(1): 268-274 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-3083-3
Research Article | Issue | Published: 05 January 2021

Robust enhanced hydrogen production at acidic conditions over molybdenum oxides-stabilized ultrafine palladium electrocatalysts

Show Author's Information Ji Sun1,2,§,  Xian Zhang1,§,  Meng Jin1,2,  Qizhong Xiong1,  Guozhong Wang1,  Haimin Zhang1( ),  Huijun Zhao1,3( )
Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Centre for Environmental and Energy Nanomaterials, Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience Institute, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China
University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Centre for Clean Environment and Energy, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, QLD 4222, Australia

§ Ji Sun and Xian Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
electrocatalysts, hydrogen evolution reaction, Pd nanoparticles, MoOx
Topics:
Catalyst activityDensity functional theoryElectrocatalystsElectrodesElectrolytesElectrolytic reduction Electronic structureHydrogen evolution reaction Hydrogen fuelsHydrogen productionMetal nanoparticlesMolybdenum oxideNanocatalystsPalladium
Cite this article:
Sun J, Zhang X, Jin M, et al. Robust enhanced hydrogen production at acidic conditions over molybdenum oxides-stabilized ultrafine palladium electrocatalysts. Nano Research, 2021, 14(1): 268-274. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-3083-3
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Electrochemical water splitting is quite seductive for eco-friendly hydrogen fuel energy production, however, the attainment of highly efficient, durable, and cheap catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) remains challenging. In this study, molybdenum oxides stabilized palladium nanoparticle catalysts (MoOx-Pd) are in situ prepared on commercial carbon cloth (CC) by the facile two-step method of dip-coating and electrochemical reduction. As a self-supported Pd-based catalyst electrode, the MoOx-Pd/CC presents a competitive Tafel slope of 45.75 mV·dec-1, an ultralow overpotential of 25 mV, and extremely long cycling durability (one week) in 0.5 M H2SO4 electrolyte, superior to unmodified Pd catalysts and comparable to commercial Pt mesh electrode. On the one hand, the introduction of MoOx can inhibit the growth of Pd particles to obtain ultrafine Pd nanoparticles, thus exposing more available active sites. On the other hand, density functional theory (DFT) calculation revealed that MoOx on the surface of Pd metal can regulate the electronic structure of Pd metal and enhance its intrinsic catalytic activity of HER. This work suggests that transitional metal nanoparticles stabilized by molybdenum oxides are hopeful approaches for obtaining fruitful hydrogen-producing electrocatalysts.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Robust enhanced hydrogen production at acidic conditions over molybdenum oxides-stabilized ultrafine palladium electrocatalysts

Show Author's information Ji Sun1,2,§, Xian Zhang1,§, Meng Jin1,2, Qizhong Xiong1, Guozhong Wang1, Haimin Zhang1( ), Huijun Zhao1,3( )
Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Centre for Environmental and Energy Nanomaterials, Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience Institute, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China
University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Centre for Clean Environment and Energy, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, QLD 4222, Australia

§ Ji Sun and Xian Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Electrochemical water splitting is quite seductive for eco-friendly hydrogen fuel energy production, however, the attainment of highly efficient, durable, and cheap catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) remains challenging. In this study, molybdenum oxides stabilized palladium nanoparticle catalysts (MoOx-Pd) are in situ prepared on commercial carbon cloth (CC) by the facile two-step method of dip-coating and electrochemical reduction. As a self-supported Pd-based catalyst electrode, the MoOx-Pd/CC presents a competitive Tafel slope of 45.75 mV·dec-1, an ultralow overpotential of 25 mV, and extremely long cycling durability (one week) in 0.5 M H2SO4 electrolyte, superior to unmodified Pd catalysts and comparable to commercial Pt mesh electrode. On the one hand, the introduction of MoOx can inhibit the growth of Pd particles to obtain ultrafine Pd nanoparticles, thus exposing more available active sites. On the other hand, density functional theory (DFT) calculation revealed that MoOx on the surface of Pd metal can regulate the electronic structure of Pd metal and enhance its intrinsic catalytic activity of HER. This work suggests that transitional metal nanoparticles stabilized by molybdenum oxides are hopeful approaches for obtaining fruitful hydrogen-producing electrocatalysts.

Keywords: electrocatalysts, hydrogen evolution reaction, Pd nanoparticles, MoOx

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 15 July 2020
Revised: 27 July 2020
Accepted: 31 August 2020
Published: 05 January 2021
Issue date: January 2021

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51902312 and 51672277), the young project of Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. 1908085QB83), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (No. 2019M652224), the CAS Pioneer Hundred Talents Program, and the CAS/SAFEA International Partnership Program for Creative Research Teams of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.

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