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Robust enhanced hydrogen production at acidic conditions over molybdenum oxides-stabilized ultrafine palladium electrocatalysts

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Abstract

Electrochemical water splitting is quite seductive for eco-friendly hydrogen fuel energy production, however, the attainment of highly efficient, durable, and cheap catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) remains challenging. In this study, molybdenum oxides stabilized palladium nanoparticle catalysts (MoOx-Pd) are in situ prepared on commercial carbon cloth (CC) by the facile two-step method of dip-coating and electrochemical reduction. As a self-supported Pd-based catalyst electrode, the MoOx-Pd/CC presents a competitive Tafel slope of 45.75 mVdec−1, an ultralow overpotential of 25 mV, and extremely long cycling durability (one week) in 0.5 M H2SO4 electrolyte, superior to unmodified Pd catalysts and comparable to commercial Pt mesh electrode. On the one hand, the introduction of MoOx can inhibit the growth of Pd particles to obtain ultrafine Pd nanoparticles, thus exposing more available active sites. On the other hand, density functional theory (DFT) calculation revealed that MoOx on the surface of Pd metal can regulate the electronic structure of Pd metal and enhance its intrinsic catalytic activity of HER. This work suggests that transitional metal nanoparticles stabilized by molybdenum oxides are hopeful approaches for obtaining fruitful hydrogen-producing electrocatalysts.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51902312 and 51672277), the young project of Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. 1908085QB83), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (No. 2019M652224), the CAS Pioneer Hundred Talents Program, and the CAS/SAFEA International Partnership Program for Creative Research Teams of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.

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  1. Ji Sun and Xian Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Centre for Environmental and Energy Nanomaterials, Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience Institute, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China

    Ji Sun, Xian Zhang, Meng Jin, Qizhong Xiong, Guozhong Wang, Haimin Zhang & Huijun Zhao

  2. University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Ji Sun & Meng Jin

  3. Centre for Clean Environment and Energy, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Griffith, QLD, 4222, Australia

    Huijun Zhao

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  1. Ji Sun
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Correspondence to Haimin Zhang or Huijun Zhao.

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12274_2020_3083_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Robust enhanced hydrogen production at acidic conditions over molybdenum oxides-stabilized ultrafine palladium electrocatalysts

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Sun, J., Zhang, X., Jin, M. et al. Robust enhanced hydrogen production at acidic conditions over molybdenum oxides-stabilized ultrafine palladium electrocatalysts. Nano Res. 14, 268–274 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-3083-3

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