Boron nitride nanosheets decorated with Au, Au-Ni, Au-Cu, or Au-Co nanoparticles as efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Following our previous reports that 1. both oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) at gold electrode are accelerated by the surface modification with boron nitride nanosheet (BNNS), insulator, and 2. the ORR overpotential is further reduced by Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) decoration of BNNS, here we investigated the effect of Au, Au-Ni, Au-Cu, and Au-Co NPs decoration on HER at BNNS modified Au. HER rate was enhanced in all the cases. The lowest overpotential, only 30 mV more than that at a Pt electrode at −15 mA/cm2, was observed at Au electrode modified by BNNS decorated with Au-Ni NP. To confirm the importance of BNNS, the HER rates at Au electrode modified by rGO decorated with Au and Au-Ni NPs were also examined. Although the reduction of overpotential was observed even using rGO as a support, the effect was less than that using BNNS as a support by ca. 80 mV, showing the importance of BNNS for enhanced HER activity.