Molybdenum Nitride Electrocatalysts for Hydrogen Evolution More Efficient than Platinum/Carbon: Mo₂N/CeO₂@Nickel Foam

To produce hydrogen economically by electrolysis of water, one needs to develop a non-precious-metal catalyst that is as efficient as platinum metal. Here, we prepare such a catalyst by growing a layer of Mo₂N over a layer of CeO₂ deposited on nickel foam (NF) [hereafter, Mo₂N /CeO₂@NF] and show that the activity of this self-supported catalyst for hydrogen evolution in 1.0 M KOH is more efficient than that of the Pt/C electrode, achieving a current density of 10 mA/cm² at a fairly low overpotential of 26 mV. Furthermore, after a long-time electrochemical stability test for 24 h at a fixed current density, the overpotential needed to attain a current density of 10 mA/cm² is increased only by 6 mV, implying the huge potential of this method to prepare a super HER activity electrode for water splitting.