Two-dimensional mineral hydrogel-derived single atoms-anchored heterostructures for ultrastable hydrogen evolution

Fucong Lyu; Shanshan Zeng; Zhe Jia; Fei-Xiang Ma; Ligang Sun; Lizi Cheng; Jie Pan; Yan Bao; Zhengyi Mao; Yu Bu; Yang Yang Li; Jian Lu

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-33725-8

Two-dimensional mineral hydrogel-derived single atoms-anchored heterostructures for ultrastable hydrogen evolution

Nat Commun. 2022 Oct 21;13(1):6249. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-33725-8.

Authors

Fucong Lyu^{1

2}, Shanshan Zeng³, Zhe Jia^{2

4}, Fei-Xiang Ma^{1

2}, Ligang Sun^{5

6}, Lizi Cheng^{1

2}, Jie Pan³, Yan Bao^{1

2}, Zhengyi Mao^{1

7}, Yu Bu^{1

2}, Yang Yang Li⁸, Jian Lu^{9

10

11

12}

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Advanced Structural Materials, City University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Research Institute, Greater Bay Joint Division, Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Shenzhen, 518057, China.
² Hong Kong Branch of National Precious Metals Material Engineering Research Centre, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
³ Department of Material Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
⁴ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, China.
⁵ School of Science, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China. sunligang@hit.edu.cn.
⁶ Department of Mechanical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. sunligang@hit.edu.cn.
⁷ Department of Mechanical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
⁸ Department of Material Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. yangli@cityu.edu.hk.
⁹ Centre for Advanced Structural Materials, City University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Research Institute, Greater Bay Joint Division, Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Shenzhen, 518057, China. jianlu@cityu.edu.hk.
¹⁰ Hong Kong Branch of National Precious Metals Material Engineering Research Centre, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. jianlu@cityu.edu.hk.
¹¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. jianlu@cityu.edu.hk.
¹² CityU-Shenzhen Futian Research Institute, Shenzhen, 518045, China. jianlu@cityu.edu.hk.

Abstract

Hydrogen energy is critical for achieving carbon neutrality. Heterostructured materials with single metal-atom dispersion are desirable for hydrogen production. However, it remains a great challenge to achieve large-scale fabrication of single atom-anchored heterostructured catalysts with high stability, low cost, and convenience. Here, we report single iron (Fe) atom-dispersed heterostructured Mo-based nanosheets developed from a mineral hydrogel. These rationally designed nanosheets exhibit excellent hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity and reliability in alkaline condition, manifesting an overpotential of 38.5 mV at 10 mA cm^-2, and superior stability without performance deterioration over 600 h at current density up to 200 mA cm^-2, superior to most previously reported non-noble-metal electrocatalysts. The experimental and density functional theory results reveal that the O-coordinated single Fe atom-dispersed heterostructures greatly facilitated H₂O adsorption and enabled effective adsorbed hydrogen (H*) adsorption/desorption. The green, scalable production of single-atom-dispersed heterostructured HER electrocatalysts reported here is of great significance in promoting their large-scale implementation.

Abstract

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