Precious Metal Free Hydrogen Evolution Catalyst Design and Application

Abstract

The quest to identify precious metal free hydrogen evolution reaction catalysts has received unprecedented attention in the past decade. In this Review, we focus our attention to recent developments in precious metal free hydrogen evolution reactions in acidic and alkaline electrolyte owing to their relevance to commercial and near-commercial low-temperature electrolyzers. We provide a detailed review and critical analysis of catalyst activity and stability performance measurements and metrics commonly deployed in the literature, as well as review best practices for experimental measurements (both in half-cell three-electrode configurations and in two-electrode device testing). In particular, we discuss the transition from laboratory-scale hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalyst measurements to those in single cells, which is a critical aspect crucial for scaling up from laboratory to industrial settings but often overlooked. Furthermore, we review the numerous catalyst design strategies deployed across the precious metal free HER literature. Subsequently, we showcase some of the most commonly investigated families of precious metal free HER catalysts; molybdenum disulfide-based, transition metal phosphides, and transition metal carbides for acidic electrolyte; nickel molybdenum and transition metal phosphides for alkaline. This includes a comprehensive analysis comparing the HER activity between several families of materials highlighting the recent stagnation with regards to enhancing the intrinsic activity of precious metal free hydrogen evolution reaction catalysts. Finally, we summarize future directions and provide recommendations for the field in this area of electrocatalysis.

Non-precious Electrocatalysts for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

“…The development of efficient and cost-effective catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is important to advanced water electrolysis and the widespread adoption of hydrogen as a clean and sustainable energy source [1,2] . While noble metals such as Pt and Pd exhibit exceptional HER activity, their limited natural reserve and high cost pose significant challenges for large-scale implementation [3,4] .…”

Alkali metal-assisted nucleation and growth of stable 1T/2H MoS2 for the hydrogen evolution reaction

“…The high cost of platinum, motivates the search for more affordable yet efficient alternatives, 3,4 such as non-noble metals ( viz. , metal-carbides, phosphides, chalcogenides), 5,6 metal oxides ( viz.…”