Mechanism insight into the N-C polar bond and Pd-Co heterojunction for improved hydrogen evolution activity
Chenliang Zhou,
Shaoyuan Shi,
Xingyu Zhang,
Yuting Sun,
Guan Peng,
Wenjing Yuan
Affiliations
Chenliang Zhou
Ganjiang Innovation Academy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ganzhou 341119, People’s Republic of China; School of Rare Earths, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, People’s Republic of China
Shaoyuan Shi
Ganjiang Innovation Academy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ganzhou 341119, People’s Republic of China; School of Rare Earths, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, People’s Republic of China; Jiangxi Province Key Laboratory of Cleaner Production of Rare Earths, Ganzhou 341119, People’s Republic of China; Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, People’s Republic of China
Xingyu Zhang
Ganjiang Innovation Academy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ganzhou 341119, People’s Republic of China; School of Rare Earths, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, People’s Republic of China
Yuting Sun
Ganjiang Innovation Academy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ganzhou 341119, People’s Republic of China; School of Rare Earths, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, People’s Republic of China
Guan Peng
Ganjiang Innovation Academy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ganzhou 341119, People’s Republic of China
Wenjing Yuan
Ganjiang Innovation Academy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ganzhou 341119, People’s Republic of China; School of Rare Earths, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, People’s Republic of China; Jiangxi Province Key Laboratory of Cleaner Production of Rare Earths, Ganzhou 341119, People’s Republic of China; Corresponding author
Summary: Constructing platinum-like materials with excellent catalytic activity and low cost has great significance for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) during electrolysis of water. Herein, palladium nanoparticles (NPs) deposition on the surface of Co NPs using nitrogen-doped carbon (NC) as substrate, denoted as N-ZIFC/CoPd-30, are manufactured and served as HER electrocatalysts. Characterization results and density functional theory calculations validate that Pd-Co heterojunctions with NC acting as “electron donators” promote the Pd species transiting to the electron-rich state based on an efficient electron transfer mechanism, namely the N-C polar bonds induced strong metal-support interaction effect. The electron-rich Pd sites are beneficial to HER. Satisfactorily, N-ZIFC/CoPd-30 have only low overpotentials of 16, 162, and 13 mV@-10 mA cm−2 with the small Tafel slopes of 98 mV/decade, 126 mV/decade, and 72 mV/decade in pH of 13, 7, and 0, respectively. The success in fabricating N-ZIFC/CoPd opens a promising path to constructing other platinum-like electrocatalysts with high HER activity.
