High stability and efficiency of electrocatalysts are crucial for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) toward water splitting in an alkaline media. Herein, a novel nano-Pt/Nb-doped Co(OH)2 (Pt/NbCo(OH)2 ) nanosheet is designed and synthesized using water-bath treatment and solvothermal reduction approaches. With nano-Pt uniformly anchored onto NbCo(OH)2 nanosheet, the synthesized Pt/NbCo(OH)2 shows outstanding electrocatalytic performances for alkaline HER, achieving a high stability for at least 33 h, a high mass activity of 0.65 mA µg-1 Pt, and a good catalytic activity with a low overpotential of 112 mV at 10 mA cm-2 . Both experimental and theoretical results prove that Nb-doping significantly optimizes the hydrogen adsorption free energy to accelerate the Heyrovsky step for HER, and boosts the adsorption of H2 O, which further enhances the water activation. This study provides a new design methodology for the Nb-doped electrocatalysts in an alkaline HER field by facile and green way.
Keywords: Nb-doping Co(OH) 2 nanosheets; alkaline medium; electrocatalysis; hydrogen evolution reaction; significantly stabilizing effect.
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