Multinary intermetallic with enhanced catalytic activity and prolonged stability at high current density for electrochemical hydrogen production

Abstract

Developing robust and efficient nonprecious metal-based electrocatalysts toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a big challenge for green and sustainable energy since insufficient catalytic activity and poor stability of current catalysts cannot meet the application requirements. This work reports a freestanding HER electrode FeNiCuAlMo prepared by arc-melting and chemical dealloying methods. The HER performance firstly improves and then declines with the increase of dealloying time. When the dealloying time is 3 h, the electrode shows optimal catalytic performance. The fabricated electrode is composed of AlMo3 and Al5CuMo2, where micro-sized AlMo3 particles are embedded in cellular dendritic Al5CuMo2. Impressively, it displays excellent HER performance, including a small overpotential of 173 mV at a current density of 500 mA/cm2 and outstanding long-term stability for 100 h of continuous hydrogen evolution at 1000 mA/cm2 in an alkaline electrolyte without obvious attenuation. The intrinsic activity of the electrodes combined intermetallic compounds with hierarchical porous structure provides several effects, including enhanced massive active sites, electrolyte access, electron transport, and fast gas release that contribute jointly to enhancing HER activities. The micro-sized AlMo3 particles provide robust framework for the dendritic Al5CuMo2 active sites center, allowing the exposure of enough active sites and simultaneously maintaining good stability. The highly stable and active electrocatalytic HER property makes it as a promising candidate for practical hydrogen production.