Hierarchical molybdenum disulfide nanosheet arrays stemmed from nickel-cobalt layered double hydroxide/carbon cloth for highly-efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

The hierarchical structure of molybdenum disulfide(MoS2)nanosheet arrays stemmed from nickelcobalt layered double hydroxide(NiCo-LDH)/carbon cloth was prepared by growing the MoS_(2) nanosheet arrays onto the NiCo-LDH template which was pre-deposited onto the carbon cloth substrate.In this electrode configuration,carbon cloth is the three dimensional and conductive skeleton;NiCo-LDH nanosheets,as the template,ensure the oriented growth of MoS2 nanosheet arrays.Therefore,more MoS_(2) active sites are exposed and the catalyst exhibits good hydrogen evolution reaction activity.

In situ assembly of metal-organic framework-derived N-doped carbon/Co/CoP catalysts on carbon paper for water splitting in alkaline electrolytes

High-performance and cost-effective catalysts for water splitting are key components of hydrogen-based energy technologies. Metal-organic framework(MOF)-derived metal phosphide composites have immense potential as highly active and stable electrocatalysts but suffer from the poor efficacy of available electrode assembly methods. In this study, an MOF-derived nitrogen-doped porous carbon/Co/Co P/carbon paper(NC/Co/Co P/CP) composite electrode was assembled by electrophoretic deposition and post-processing reactions. The binder-free electrode showed good catalytic activity, significantly higher than that of traditional electrodes. The electrode required overpotentials of 208 and 350 m V to achieve a current density of 10 m A/cm^2 for the hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions, respectively. This facile synthetic method provides a promising route for designing metal-doped and multi-metal phase MOF-derived composite electrodes for energy storage and conversion devices.

Topological quantum catalyst: Dirac nodal line states and a potential electrocatalyst of hydrogen evolution in the TiSi family

Topological nodal line（DNL） semimetals, a closed loop of the inverted bands in its bulk phases, result in the almost flat drumhead-like non-trivial surface states（DNSSs） with an unusually high electronic density near the Fermi level. High catalytic active sites generally associated with high electronic densities around the Fermi level, high carrier mobility and a close-to-zero free energy of the adsorbed state of hydrogen（？G_（H＊）≈0） are prerequisite to design alternative of precious platinum for catalyzing electrochemical hydrogen production from water. By combining these two aspects, it is natural to consider if the DNLs are a good candidate for the hydrogen evolution reaction（HER） or not because its DNSSs provide a robust platform to activate chemical reactions. Here, through first-principles calculations we reported a new DNL TiSi-type family, exhibiting a closed Dirac nodal line due to the linear band crossings in k_y=0 plane.The hydrogen adsorbed state on the surface yields ？G_（H＊） to be almost zero and the topological charge carries participate in HER. The results highlight a new routine to design topological quantum catalyst utilizing the topological DNL-induced surface bands as active sites, rather than edge sites-, vacancy-,dopant-, strain-, or heterostructure-created active sites.