Thermal migration towards constructing W-W dual-sites for boosted alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 763
• Main Authors: Chen, Zhigang, Xu, Yafeng, Ding, Ding, Song, Ge, Gan, Xingxing, Li, Hao, Wei, Wei, Chen, Jian, Li, Zhiyun, Gong, Zhongmiao, Dong, Xiaoming, Zhu, Chengfeng, Yang, Nana, Ma, Jingyuan, Gao, Rui, Luo, Dan, Cong, Shan, Wang, Lu, Zhao, Zhigang, Cui, Yi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 09.02.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 140/146; 639/301/299/886; 639/638/77/884; 639/925/357; Atomic clusters; Atomic properties; Carbon; Catalysts; Electronic structure; Evolution; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydrogen; Hydrogen evolution reactions; Intermediates; multidisciplinary; Phosphorus; Photoelectron spectroscopy; Photoelectrons; Pressure; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Tungsten; Tungsten carbide
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28413-6

Tungsten carbides, featured by their Pt-like electronic structure, have long been advocated as potential replacements for the benchmark Pt-group catalysts in hydrogen evolution reaction. However, tungsten-carbide catalysts usually exhibit poor alkaline HER performance because of the sluggish hydrogen desorption behavior and possible corrosion problem of tungsten atoms by the produced hydroxyl intermediates. Herein, we report the synthesis of tungsten atomic clusters anchored on P-doped carbon materials via a thermal-migration strategy using tungsten single atoms as the parent material, which is evidenced to have the most favorable Pt-like electronic structure by in-situ variable-temperature near ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. Accordingly, tungsten atomic clusters show markedly enhanced alkaline HER activity with an ultralow overpotential of 53 mV at 10 mA/cm 2 and a Tafel slope as low as 38 mV/dec. These findings may provide a feasible route towards the rational design of atomic-cluster catalysts with high alkaline hydrogen evolution activity. While platinum is a highly active catalyst for H 2 evolution, its low abundance prompts research into earth-abundant alternatives. Here, authors prepare tungsten atomic clusters on phosphorus doped carbon by thermal migration and demonstrate excellent activities for hydrogen evolution electrocatalysis.