Potentiostatic electrodeposition of Ni–Se–Cu on nickel foam as an electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Development of cost-effective and efficient earth-abundant catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a great challenge. In this study, by one-step potentiostatic electrodeposition, the Ni–Se–Cu electrocatalyst on nickel foam was fabricated as a binder-free HER electrocatalyst. As compared with Ni–Se electrocatalysts, such fabricated Ni–Se–Cu electrocatalyst exhibited prominent electrocatalytic activity to the HER in alkaline electrolyte. This Ni–Se–Cu electrocatalyst exhibits a small overpotential of 136 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA·cm−2 and high electrochemical stability. The remarkable HER properties of Ni–Se–Cu electrocatalyst mainly originate from high electronic conductivity induced by Cu-doping. This work shows a cheap and simple avenue to develop high efficient non-noble electrochemical electrocatalysts for HER.