FeNiMo trimetallic nanoparticles encapsulated in carbon cages as efficient hydrogen evolution reaction electrocatalysts

Abstract

Hydrogen is one of the most desirable alternatives to fossil fuels due to its renewability and large energy density. The electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is drawing more and more attention since it can produce H₂ powered by renewable energy. Therefore, efficient and durable electrocatalysts are an urgent need. On the one hand, the high price and low reserve of noble metals hinder their further applications. On the other hand, various non-noble metal electrocatalysts cannot achieve satisfactory stability and efficiency. Thus, this paper reports a cheap and feasible way to synthesize a carbon cage-encapsulated FeNiMo compound. It exhibits the desired overpotentials of 199 mV at 10 mA cm⁻² in an alkaline solution and 246 mV at 10 mA cm⁻² in an acidic solution. Besides, it exhibits similar current density loss to commercial Pt/C after 10 000 CV cycles, which suggests satisfactory durability.