No abstract

No abstract

The production of hydrogen by the electrolysis of water, a sustainable and greenhouse-gas-free source, requires an efficient and abundant electrocatalyst that minimizes energy consumption. Interest in transition metal carbides and nitrides has been aroused by their promising properties that make them potential substitutes for Pt-group metals as catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction. In this review, we discuss systematically the recent progress in the development of group IV-VI metal carbides and nitrides toward the hydrogen evolution reaction. Some strategies for designing such catalysts and improving their efficiency and reliability, including nanostructuring, optimizing hydrogen binding energy, interaction with the supporting material, and exploiting hybrid structures, are highlighted. We conclude with an outlook on the challenges in designing future HER electrocatalysts.

stability is one of the main requirements for commercializing fuel cell electrocatalysts for automotive applications. Platinum is the best-known catalyst for oxygen reduction in cathodes, but it undergoes dissolution during potential changes while driving electric vehicles, thus hampering commercial adoption. Here we report a new class of highly stable, active electrocatalysts comprising platinum monolayers on palladium-gold alloy nanoparticles. In fuel-cell tests, this electrocatalyst with its ultra-low platinum content showed minimal degradation in activity over 100,000 cycles between potentials 0.6 and 1.0 V. under more severe conditions with a potential range of 0.6-1.4 V, again we registered no marked losses in platinum and gold despite the dissolution of palladium. These data coupled with theoretical analyses demonstrated that adding a small amount of gold to palladium and forming highly uniform nanoparticle cores make the platinum monolayer electrocatalyst significantly tolerant and very promising for the automotive application of fuel cells.

No abstract