NCoCu Carbon Dots Intertwined NiCo Double Hydroxide Nanorod Array for Efficient Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Abstract

AbstractElectrocatalytic production of hydrogen from water is a faster and environmentally friendly way of producing bulk hydrogen with the highest purity. Herein, a highly efficient mesh‐like cobalt hydroxide self‐supporting catalyst coupled with NCoCu‐5 carbon dots (CDs) on Ni foam (NF) is reported by a common hydrothermal way. The type of carbon dots on NiCo double hydroxide has a great effect on the morphology of the catalyst (NCoCu‐5 CDs/NF−CoNi). The intertwined mesh‐like NCoCu‐5 CDs/NF−CoNi catalyst has an excellent HER performance, exhibiting a low overpotential of 65 mV at 10 mA cm−2. After coupling with NCoCu‐5 CDs, a new Co−N electronic transfer channel is created in composite, and a suitable electronic environment is produced between Co and NCoCu‐5 CDs. Copper cations react with NF to generate Cu+ intermediate ions, thus further promoting the formation of Co3+. It supplies a high‐speed charge channel for the transmission of ions and increases the active sites.