One-step synthesis of self-supporting porous Cu81(Ni,Co)19 intermetallic catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

The development of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts with excellent performance is the key to the wide-scale application of hydrogen energy. Herein, this work facilely synthesizes the self-supporting porous Cu81(Ni,Co)19 electrocatalysts by dealloying ZrNiCoCuAl amorphous alloy in HF solution. By regulating the composition of ZrNiCoCuAl amorphous alloy dealloying precursor, the porous Cu81(Ni,Co)19 composite synthesized by dealloying Zr60Ni8Co8Cu16Al8 amorphous alloy demonstrates the great HER performance with an overpotential of 35 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and a Tafel slope of 73.3 mV dec−1. The outstanding catalytic performance of porous Cu81(Ni,Co)19 is attributed to the hierarchical porous structure, low charge transfer resistance as well as the synergistic interactions among the Cu, Ni and Co elements. Moreover, the theoretical calculations indicate that the constituent Cu, Co and Ni elements in the Cu81(Ni,Co)19 intermetallic alloy can act synergistically to optimize the free energy of hydrogen adsorption, therefore improve HER activity.