Amorphous hybrid tungsten oxide–nickel hydroxide nanosheets used as a highly efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

There are more challenges for alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction(HER)via simultaneously expediting the electron-coupled water dissociation process(Volmer step)and the following electrochemical H_(2) desorption(Heyrovsky step).Hybrid amorphous electrocatalysts are highly desirable for efficient hydrogen evolution from water-alkali electrolyzers due to the bifunctionality for the different elementary steps of HER and optimal interactions with water molecules and the reactive hydrogen intermediates(Had).Herein,the synthesis of amorphous hybrid ultrathin(tungsten oxide/nickel hydroxide)hydrate(a-[WO_(3)/Ni(OH)_(2)]·0.2H_(2)O)nanosheets on nickel foam(NF)for efficient alkaline HER is described.The structural and composition features of a-[WO_(3)/Ni(OH)_(2)]·0.2H_(2)O are characterized in detailed.The resulting a-[WO_(3)/Ni(OH)_(2)]·0.2H_(2)O/NF electrocatalyst with the synergistic effect of both hybrid components for the HER elementary steps shows greatly improved the activity and durability for the HER with a low overpotential of-41 and-163 mV at-10 and-500 mA·cm^(-2),respectively,a Tafel slope as low as-72.9 mV·dec^(-1),and long-term stability of continuous electrolysis for at least 150 h accompanying by inappreciable overpotential change in 1 M KOH.In the hybrid a-[WO_(3)/Ni(OH)_(2)]·0.2H_(2)O,Ni(OH)_(2) and WO_(3) moieties are separately responsible for accelerating dissociative adsorption of water and weakening Had adsorption strength,which is beneficial to the improvement of the alkaline HER activity.