Ni–Mo Nanopowders for Efficient Electrochemical Hydrogen Evolution

Earth-abundant metals are attractive alternatives to the noble metal composite catalysts that are used in water electrolyzers based on proton-exchange membrane technology. Ni–Mo alloys have been previously developed for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), but synthesis methods to date have been limited to formation of catalyst coatings directly on a substrate. We report a method for generating unsupported nanopowders of Ni–Mo, which can be suspended in common solvents and cast onto arbitrary substrates. The mass-specific catalytic activity under alkaline conditions approaches that of the most active reported non-noble HER catalysts, and the coatings display good stability under alkaline conditions. We have…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy
• CI
  California Institute of Technology
• OO
  Office of Science