Heterostructures induced between platinum nanoparticles and vanadium carbide boosting hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Electrolysis of water to produce clean and renewable hydrogen fuel is a very significant way for sustainable energy development. The most advanced catalysts for hydrogen evolution are Pt-based materials. However, due to the high cost and scarcity of Pt elements, it is indispensable to improve the stability and intrinsic catalytic activity of Pt. The design and synthesis of Pt/support materials provide an effective approach for efficient catalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, an excellent heterostructure induced 4.78-Pt/V8C7 @C hybrid was synthesized as electrocatalyst for efficient electrocatalytic HER. The 4.78-Pt/V8C7 @C hybrid exhibits excellent HER activity due to the synergy interaction, which can modulate the electronic structure of Pt NPs and the hydrogen adsorption of Pt NPs surface. Notably, compared with commercial Pt/C, the 4.78-Pt/V8C7 @C hybrid exhibits more remarkable HER performance in acidic and alkaline media. The 4.78-Pt/V8C7 @C hybrid delivers an overpotential of 6 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in 0.5 M H2SO4. And the mass activity of 0.78 mA Ptg−1 is reached at − 0.02 V, which is 12.4 times that of Pt/C. This work provide that the vanadium carbide networks is an effective substrate material for the deposition of Pt NPs to improve HER activity and stability.