Improving the Catalytic Performance of the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction of α-MoB₂ via Rational Doping by Transition Metal Elements

Abundant transition metal borides are emerging as promising electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts which have a potential to substitute noble metals. Those containing graphene-like (flat) boron layers, such as α-MoB2, are particularly promising and their performance can be further enhanced via doping by the second metal. In order to understand intrinsic effect of doping and rationalize selection of dopants, we employ density functional theory (DFT) calculations to study substitutional doping of α-MoB₂ by transition metals as a route towards systematic improvement of intrinsic catalytic activity towards HER. We calculated thermodynamic stability of various transition metal elements to select metals which form a stable ternary phase with α-MoB₂ . We inspected surface stability of dopants and assessed catalytic activity of doped surface through hydrogen binding free energy at various hydrogen coverages. We calculated the reaction barriers and pathways for the Tafel step of HER for the most promising dopants. The results highlight iron as the best dopant, simultaneously lowering the reaction barrier of the Tafel step while having suitable thermodynamic stability within MoB₂ lattice.