Abstract
Much research has been done on reliable and low-cost electrocatalysts for hydrogen generation by water splitting. In this study, we synthesized thin films of silver selenide (Ag2Se) using a simple thermal evaporation route and demonstrated their electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity. The Ag2Se catalysts show improved electrochemical surface area and good HER electrocatalytic behavior (367 mV overpotential @ 10 mA·cm−2, exchange current density: ~1.02 × 10−3 mA·cm−2, and Tafel slope: 53 mV·dec−1) in an acidic medium). The reliability was checked in 0.5 M sulfuric acid over 20 h. Our first-principles calculations show the optimal energy of hydrogen adsorption, which is consistent with experimental results. The works could be further extended for finding a new catalyst by associating the selenide, sulfide or telluride-based materials without complex catalyst synthesis procedures.
Highlights
Due to the environmental problems caused by the huge amount of fossil fuels, it is imperative to advance renewable and environmentally-friendly energy sources
The Cdl of Ag2Se samples are measured by Cyclic voltammetry (CV) at non-faradaic potential regions (Supplementary Figure S5), and is extracted at a given potential (0.24 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)) from the differences between cathodic and anodic current density values (∆j = ja − jc) against the various scan rates (20–100 mV·s−1)
The results indicate that the Ag2Se-150 has the largest effective surface area (ECSA) among the three samples
Summary
Due to the environmental problems caused by the huge amount of fossil fuels, it is imperative to advance renewable and environmentally-friendly energy sources. Hydrogen generation from water splitting has been considered as a replacement for traditional fossil fuels. Electrochemical water splitting from various catalysts is an efficient way to generate hydrogen [1]. Pt and noble metals have been used as catalyst materials for hydrogen generation [2,3,4,5,6,7]. Exploring robust, cost-effective, earth-rich, and non-noble metal catalysts to replace Pt is very crucial for hydrogen generation from electrochemical water splitting. Being inspired by excellent electrical properties of Ag2S, we combined Ag and Se to implement Ag2Se as catalysts. Ag2Se catalysts show good HER properties (367 mV overpotential @ 10 mA·cm−2, exchange current density: ~1.02 × 10−3 mA·cm−2, and Tafel slope: 53 mV·dec−1)
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