Revealing the Contribution of Individual Factors to Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Catalytic Activity

• Published in: Advanced materials (Weinheim) Vol. 30; no. 18; pp. e1706076 - n/a
• Main Authors: Zhou, Yu, Silva, Jose Luis, Woods, John M., Pondick, Joshua V., Feng, Qingliang, Liang, Zhixiu, Liu, Wen, Lin, Li, Deng, Bingchen, Brena, Barbara, Xia, Fengnian, Peng, Hailin, Liu, Zhongfan, Wang, Hailiang, Araujo, Carlos Moyses, Cha, Judy J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.05.2018; Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
• Subjects: 2D TMD materials; Catalysis; Catalysts; Catalytic activity; Charge transport; Chemistry - Physical Chemistry; Electrical properties; Electrocatalysts; electrochemical microreactors; hydrogen evolution reaction; Hydrogen evolution reactions; individual factors; Interlayers; Kemi - fysikalisk kemi; Materials science; Microreactors; Molybdenum disulfide; overall performance; electrochemical microreactors; 2D TMD materials; hydrogen evolution reaction; overall performance; individual factors
• ISSN: 0935-9648; 1521-4095; 1521-4095
• DOI: 10.1002/adma.201706076

For the electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), the electrical properties of catalysts can play an important role in influencing the overall catalytic activity. This is particularly important for semiconducting HER catalysts such as MoS2, which has been extensively studied over the last decade. Herein, on‐chip microreactors on two model catalysts, semiconducting MoS2 and semimetallic WTe2, are employed to extract the effects of individual factors and study their relations with the HER catalytic activity. It is shown that electron injection at the catalyst/current collector interface and intralayer and interlayer charge transport within the catalyst can be more important than thermodynamic energy considerations. For WTe2, the site‐dependent activities and the relations of the pure thermodynamics to the overall activity are measured and established, as the microreactors allow precise measurements of the type and area of the catalytic sites. The approach presents opportunities to study electrochemical reactions systematically to help establish rational design principles for future electrocatalysts. On‐chip microreactors are employed to extract the effects of individual factors on hydrogen evolution catalytic activities. It is found that electron injection at the catalyst/current collector interface and intralayer and interlayer charge transport can be more important than thermodynamic energy considerations. The approach presents opportunities to study electrochemical reactions systematically for comprehensive understanding of rational design principles.