An Earth-Abundant Tungsten–Nickel Alloy Electrocatalyst for Superior Hydrogen Evolution

Abstract

Hydrogen production with high purity through water splitting has been proved to be a potential energy technology but requires highly efficient, low cost, and robust electrocatalysts. Herein, a tungsten–nickel/nickel foam hybrid is prepared by a facile method and exhibits an outstanding hydrogen evolution reaction activity and remarkable stability in alkaline solution. It only requires an overpotential of 36 mV to afford the current density of 10 mA cm–2 with a small Tafel slope of 43 mV dec–1. Owing to the excellent electrocatalytic performance arising from the synergistic effect of binary tungsten–nickel interacting through the d-orbital electron transfer, the as-prepared material is the best among tungsten-based HER electrocatalysts. The lower adsorption energy of water molecules and a small Gibbs free energy of hydrogen adsorption (0.17 eV) on tungsten atoms of WNi (111) from DFT calculations reveal the favorable water electrolysis kinetics. Moreover, the simple preparation strategy can be extended to ...