Nat. Commun.: A Rhodium/Silicon Co-Electrocatalyst Design Concept to Surpass Platinum Hydrogen Evolution activity at High Overpotentials

Title:

A Rhodium/Silicon Co-Electrocatalyst Design Concept to Surpass Platinum Hydrogen Evolution activity at High Overpotentials

Authors:

Lili Zhu¹, Haiping  Lin¹, Youyong Li¹, Fan Liao¹,  Yeshayahu  Lifshitz^1,2, Minqi Sheng¹, Shuit-Tong Lee¹& Mingwang Shao¹

Institutions:

¹Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215123, China                  

²Materials Science and Engineering Department, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel

Abstract:

Currently, platinum-based electrocatalysts show the best performance for hydrogen evolution. All hydrogen evolution reaction catalysts should however obey Sabatier’s principle, that is, the adsorption energy of hydrogen to the catalyst surface should be neither too high nor too low to balance between hydrogen adsorption and desorption. To overcome the limitation of this principle, here we choose a composite (rhodium/silicon nanowire) catalyst, in which hydrogen adsorption occurs on rhodium with a large adsorption energy while hydrogen evolution occurs on silicon with a small  adsorption energy. We show that the composite is stable with better hydrogen evolution activity than rhodium nanoparticles and even exceeding those of commercial platinum/carbon at high overpotentials. The results reveal that silicon plays a key role in the electrocatalysis. This work may thus open the door for the design and fabrication of electrocatalysts for high-efficiency electric energy to hydrogen energy conversion.

IF:

11.329

Link:

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12272

Editor: Danting Xiang