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Updated: Oct 27, 2026

Simple Methods for the Preparation of Non-noble Metal Bulk-electrodes for Electrocatalytic Applications
Published on: June 21, 2017
The Potential of Zero Charge: An Interfacial Descriptor Governing Hydrogen Evolution Reaction on Bulk Metal
Yuefei Zhang1, Yufei Xue1, Yang Zhang1
1MOE Key Laboratory For Non-equilibrium Synthesis and Modulation of Condensed Matter, Shaanxi Province Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
Abstract:
While the Sabatier-based volcano plots guide catalyst design for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER), the purely thermodynamic hydrogen binding energy descriptor fails to capture experimental HER trends accurately due to the omission of kinetic contributions. Herein, we combine the fixed-potential method with our developed continuous proton supply/consumption model to establish an extra kinetic descriptor for metal-based electrodes (Pt, Pd, Au, Ag, and their bimetallic alloys) under practical working conditions. The potential of zero charge (PZC) is demonstrated to be the interfacial descriptor, which modulates surface charge density and thereby tunes the kinetic proton enrichment within the EDL. Building on this insight, the PZC is integrated with hydrogen binding energies to establish a new two-dimensional volcano plot for HER. The updated volcano plot derived from the dual descriptors effectively matches the experimental results, which provides an additional guiding parameter for rational catalyst design.
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