Photochemical fabrication of bimetal wormlike heterostructured nanorods for enhanced electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

One-dimensional (1D) nanostructures have attracted extensive attention in electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) because of their specific electronic structures and morphology effect. Here, a photochemical approach was developed to prepare 1D wormlike heterostructured nanorods (HSNRs) for improving the electrocatalytic HER performance. The optimized electronic structure has been demonstrated by the radial and axial electron transfer channels for plasmon oscillation. The increased active sites have been confirmed by the increased electrochemically active surface area. The normalized Pt mass activity of Au5Pt1 HSNRs was 23.9 and 10.9 times of that of commercial 20 wt% Pt/C and Au/Pt NPs catalysts at - 0.05 V, respectively. The charge transfer resistance and Tafel slope of Au5Pt1 HSNRs were the smallest among different samples. The excellent catalytic performances of Au5Pt1 HSNRs catalyst can be attributed to the special electronic structure and morphology effect of Au/Pt HSNRs.