Atomically Dispersed MoOx on Rhodium Metallene Boosts Electrocatalyzed Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution

Jiandong Wu; Jinchang Fan; Xiao Zhao; Ying Wang; Dewen Wang; Hongtai Liu; Lin Gu; Qinghua Zhang; Lirong Zheng; David J Singh; Xiaoqiang Cui; Weitao Zheng

doi:10.1002/anie.202207512

Atomically Dispersed MoO_x on Rhodium Metallene Boosts Electrocatalyzed Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2022 Aug 22;61(34):e202207512. doi: 10.1002/anie.202207512. Epub 2022 Jul 11.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Automotive Simulation and Control, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials of MOE, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China.
² Key Laboratory for Renewable Energy, Beijing Key Laboratory for New Energy Materials and Devices, Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Electron Microscopy, Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
³ Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy and Department of Chemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211-7010, USA.

PMID: 35762984
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202207512

Abstract

Accelerating slow water dissociation kinetics is key to boosting the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline media. We report the synthesis of atomically dispersed MoO_x species anchored on Rh metallene using a one-pot solvothermal method. The resulting structures expose the oxide-metal interfaces to the maximum extent. This leads to a MoO_x -Rh catalyst with ultrahigh alkaline HER activity. We obtained a mass activity of 2.32 A mg_Rh ^-1 at an overpotential of 50 mV, which is 11.8 times higher than that of commercial Pt/C and surpasses the previously reported Rh-based electrocatalysts. First-principles calculations demonstrate that the interface between MoO_x and Rh is the active center for alkaline HER. The MoO_x sites preferentially adsorb and dissociate water molecules, and adjacent Rh sites adsorb the generated atomic hydrogen for efficient H₂ evolution. Our findings illustrate the potential of atomic interface engineering strategies in electrocatalysis.

Keywords: Electrocatalysts; Hydrogen Evolution Reaction; Interface Engineering; Metallene.

Abstract

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