Composition of Ag-WO3 core-shell nanostructures as efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

The development of non-noble metal catalysts is considered a noteworthy topic of hydrogen production from water cracking. Electrocatalytic activity of WO3 as a cheap and promising catalyst for HER is impacted by crystal phase structure, oxygen vacancy and surface state. The present paper designs Ag-WO3 catalysts with core-shell structure using Ag@C as a template with ultrasonic synthesis method to improve the structure properties and increase the active sites of hydrogen adsorption. Also, atomic Ag serves as the function of hydrogen absorption channel for the shell of tungsten oxide. As the results suggest, Ag-WO3(0.8) CSNSs at ratio of WCl6 : Ag@C with 0.8 shows the more effective Electrocatalytic activity towards the HER with low over potential of − 207 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, small tafel slope (52.4 mV dec−1), larger active area Cdl (54.92 mF cm−2) and high exchange current density. This paper gives an effective measure for hydrogen production by using Ag-WO3 core-shell structure as alternative catalysts to platinum catalysts.