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Nanoporous Surface High‐Entropy Alloys as Highly Efficient Multisite Electrocatalysts for Nonacidic Hydrogen Evolution Reaction
Author(s) -
Yao RuiQi,
Zhou YiTong,
Shi Hang,
Wan WuBin,
Zhang QingHua,
Gu Lin,
Zhu YongFu,
Wen Zi,
Lang XingYou,
Jiang Qing
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.202009613
Subject(s) - electrocatalyst , nanoporous , materials science , electrolyte , inorganic chemistry , electrolysis , electrochemistry , bifunctional , bimetallic strip , alloy , chemical engineering , desorption , electrode , adsorption , catalysis , nanotechnology , metal , chemistry , metallurgy , organic chemistry , engineering
Electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution in alkaline and neutral media offers the possibility of adopting platinum‐free electrocatalysts for large‐scale electrochemical production of pure hydrogen fuel, but most state‐of‐the‐art electrocatalytic materials based on nonprecious transition metals operate at high overpotentials. Here, a monolithic nanoporous multielemental CuAlNiMoFe electrode with electroactive high‐entropy CuNiMoFe surface is reported to hold great promise as cost‐effective electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline and neutral media. By virtue of a surface high‐entropy alloy composed of dissimilar Cu, Ni, Mo, and Fe metals offering bifunctional electrocatalytic sites with enhanced kinetics for water dissociation and adsorption/desorption of reactive hydrogen intermediates, and hierarchical nanoporous Cu scaffold facilitating electron transfer/mass transport, the nanoporous CuAlNiMoFe electrode exhibits superior nonacidic HER electrocatalysis. It only takes overpotentials as low as ≈240 and ≈183 mV to reach current densities of ≈1840 and ≈100 mA cm −2 in 1 m KOH and pH 7 buffer electrolytes, respectively; ≈46‐ and ≈14‐fold higher than those of ternary CuAlNi electrode with bimetallic Cu–Ni surface alloy. The outstanding electrocatalytic properties make nonprecious multielemental alloys attractive candidates as high‐performance nonacidic HER electrocatalytic electrodes in water electrolysis.