Improving MoS2 hydrogen evolution performance in anion exchange membrane water electrolysis by using LaNi5 alloy as a co-catalyst

To develop high-performance non-precious metal hydrogen evolution reaction HER catalysts for anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) and address the issue of the rate of Volmer step in HER being limited by H 2 O dissociation in alkaline media, we propose a strategy where LaNi 5 alloy is used as a co-catalyst for the adsorption and activation of H*, thereby accelerating the rate of the HER. We find that LaNi 5 has a significant HER synergistic effect with MoS 2 . The overpotential at 10 mA·cm −1 for HER catalyzed by the LaNi 5 -MoS 2 composite catalyst is only 143 mV in 1.0 M KOH solution, and the AEMWE using LaNi 5 -MoS 2 as cathode catalyst reaches 1.966 V at 1.0 A·cm⁻² and shows a low degradation. Mechanism studies suggest that LaNi 5 plays the role of adsorbing and activating H*, and the enriched H* from LaNi 5 overflows to MoS 2 , which has good H 2 desorption sites, resulting in improved HER kinetics of LaNi 5 -MoS 2 .