2 A cm<sup>-2</sup> Level Large-Scale Production of Hydrogen Enabled by Constructing Higher Capacity of Interface "Electron Pocket".

Cheng, Yu; Zhang, Lifang; Wang, Sai; Wang, Mengfan; Deng, Chengwei; Sun, Yi; Yan, Chenglin; Qian, Tao · ACS Nano · 2023

basic_science · Level V

Where this comes from

Abstract

The batch production of high-purity hydrogen is a key problem that restricts the progress of fuel cells and the blueprint for achieving carbon neutrality. Transition-metal chalcogenide heterojunctions exhibit certain activity toward electrochemical overall water splitting (EOWS), but their high-current-density catalytic performances are still unsatisfactory due to the slow kinetic progression (H* or *O → *OOH). Inspired by the "electron pocket" theory, we designed a Ni-Mo bimetallic disulfide interface heterojunction electrocatalyst system (NM-IHJ-V) with high electronic storage capacity around the Fermi level (-0.5 eV, +0.5 eV) (e-D<sub>FE</sub>), which injects more power into the kinetic progression processes of intermediate species in the EOWS process. Consequently, it achieves a superhigh current density of 2 A cm<sup>-2</sup> level for EOWS (only 1.98 V voltage is needed), which is 11.23-fold higher than that of the benchmarked Pt/C//IrO<sub>2</sub> (178 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>@1.98 V), as well as an excellent long-term stability of 200 h. Most strikingly, NM-IHJ-V can efficiently produce hydrogen at currents up to 5 A. Our proposed strategy of constructing catalysts to produce hydrogen at superhigh current density through the electron pocket theory will supply valuable insights for the designing other catalytic systems.