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Updated: Apr 18, 2026

Synthesis and Performance Characterizations of Transition Metal Single Atom Catalyst for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction
Published on: April 10, 2018
Enhanced electron penetration through an ultrathin graphene layer for highly efficient catalysis of the hydrogen
Jiao Deng1, Pengju Ren, Dehui Deng
1State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhongshan Road 457, Dalian, 116023 (China).
Abstract:
Major challenges encountered when trying to replace precious-metal-based electrocatalysts of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in acidic media are related to the low efficiency and stability of non-precious-metal compounds. Therefore, new concepts and strategies have to be devised to develop electrocatalysts that are based on earth-abundant materials. Herein, we report a hierarchical architecture that consists of ultrathin graphene shells (only 1-3 layers) that encapsulate a uniform CoNi nanoalloy to enhance its HER performance in acidic media. The optimized catalyst exhibits high stability and activity with an onset overpotential of almost zero versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) and an overpotential of only 142 mV at 10 mA cm(-2) , which is quite close to that of commercial 40 % Pt/C catalysts. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that the ultrathin graphene shells strongly promote electron penetration from the CoNi nanoalloy to the graphene surface. With nitrogen dopants, they synergistically increase the electron density on the graphene surface, which results in superior HER activity on the graphene shells.
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