Nickel decorated MoO3 single crystal microflakes with multi-site functionality for enhanced hydrogen evolution reaction

• Published in: International journal of hydrogen energy Vol. 46; no. 2; pp. 1945 - 1954
• Main Authors: Arya, Nitika, Avasthi, Piyush, Halder, Aditi, Balakrishnan, Viswanath
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 06.01.2021
• Subjects: CVD growth; Hydrogen evolution reaction; Hydrogen spillover; Metal-oxide interface; Single crystals; Single crystals; Metal-oxide interface; Hydrogen evolution reaction; CVD growth; Hydrogen spillover
• ISSN: 0360-3199; 1879-3487
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2020.10.030

Role of hybrid material with metal-oxide interface has been explored by coating 2 nm nickel on α-MoO3 single crystals for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The investigated aspects reveal that α-MoO3/Ni hybrid exhibits a remarkable performance in HER showing +6 mV onset potential and 37 mV overpotential at 10 mA/cm2 current density along with Tafel slope of 47 mV/dec. The single crystalline-stepped CVD-grown MoO3 microflakes having the advantage of higher hydrogen binding energy of Ni exhibits the enhanced catalytic performance due to strong electronic coupling at the metal-oxide interface and hydrogen spill over effect. Similar hybrid material composed of Cu-MoO3 does show improvement but not as good as Ni-MoO3. A decrease of ~36% is observed in the overpotential for Ni-coated MoO3 compared to pure MoO3 crystals indicating the positive contribution of Ni-coating. The hybrid Ni-MoO3 shows the new route to develop alternate transition metal oxide-based hybrid catalyst towards production of hydrogen fuel. •Growth of MoO3 single crystal microflakes with layered structure provides catalytically active surface sites for HER.•Development of Cu and Ni-coated MoO3 hybrid material ensues a constructive synergism to lower the overpotential for HER.•Hydrogen spillover effect and electronically coupled Ni-MoO3 interface fosters the hydrogen evolution activity.