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Updated: Mar 10, 2026

A Simple, Low-cost, and Robust System to Measure the Volume of Hydrogen Evolved by Chemical Reactions with Aqueous Solutions
Published on: August 17, 2016
High intrinsic catalytic activity of two-dimensional boron monolayers for the hydrogen evolution reaction
Li Shi1, Chongyi Ling1, Yixin Ouyang1
1Department of Physics, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China. jlwang@seu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Two-dimensional (2D) boron monolayers have been successfully synthesized on a silver substrate very recently. Their potential application is thus of great significance. In this work, we explore the possibility of boron monolayers (BMs) as electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) by first-principles methods. Our calculations show that BMs are active catalysts for HER with nearly zero free energy of hydrogen adsorption, metallic conductivity and plenty of active sites in the basal plane. The effect of the substrate on HER activity is further assessed. It is found that the substrate has a positive effect on the HER performance caused by the competitive effect of mismatch strain and charge transfer. The in-depth understanding of the structure dependent HER activity is also provided.
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