Rhodium nanocrystals on porous graphdiyne for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution from saline water

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 5227
• Main Authors: Gao, Yang, Xue, Yurui, Qi, Lu, Xing, Chengyu, Zheng, Xuchen, He, Feng, Li, Yuliang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 05.09.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 119/118; 140/133; 140/146; 147/135; 147/143; 639/301/299/886; 639/4077/909; 639/638/77/884; 639/925/357; Aqueous solutions; Catalysts; Charge transfer; Crystals; Current density; Density functional theory; Electrolysis; Electronic structure; Formic acid; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydrogen; Hydrogen evolution; Hydrogen production; multidisciplinary; Nanocrystals; Reducing agents; Rhodium; Saline water; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Transmission electron microscopy
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32937-2

The realization of the efficient hydrogen conversion with large current densities at low overpotentials represents the development trend of this field. Here we report the atomic active sites tailoring through a facile synthetic method to yield well-defined Rhodium nanocrystals in aqueous solution using formic acid as the reducing agent and graphdiyne as the stabilizing support. High-resolution high-angle annular dark-field scanning-transmission electron microscopy images show the high-density atomic steps on the faces of hexahedral Rh nanocrystals. Experimental results reveal the formation of stable sp –C~Rh bonds can stabilize Rh nanocrystals and further improve charge transfer ability in the system. Experimental and density functional theory calculation results solidly demonstrate the exposed high active stepped surfaces and various metal atomic sites affect the electronic structure of the catalyst to reduce the overpotential resulting in the large-current hydrogen production from saline water. This exciting result demonstrates unmatched electrocatalytic performance and highly stable saline water electrolysis. While water electrolysis represents a promising means for renewable hydrogen production, the catalysts needed must be efficient at high current densities. Here, authors show rhodium nanocrystals on graphdiyne to efficiently evolve hydrogen from saline water.