Amorphous quaternary alloy nanoplates for efficient catalysis of hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Developing a highly efficient non-precious transition metal-based electrocatalyst via a facile approach toward the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is critical for large-scale hydrogen production but still remains challenging. Herein, a cost-effective electrochemical deposition strategy is rationally proposed to construct amorphous quaternary FeCoNiCu alloy nanosheets supported on nickel foam (NF) towards this challenge. Benefiting from the synergistic effect of multi-metal atoms interaction and the high exposure of active sites caused by abundant open voids, the as-synthesized FeCoNiCu/NF electrode exhibits high catalytic activity and robustness toward HER in alkaline solution, requiring an overpotential of only 35 mV to reach a current density of 10 mA cm–2. This study may pave a new avenue to design advanced electrocatalyst for energy conversion.