Anchoring of Pt sub-nanocluster on rich-defect NiMoOH for efficient seawater electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

It remains challenging for constructing the electrocatalysts that can prevent agglomeration, clogging and resist corrosion to improve the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance of alkaline seawater. This study proposes a defect-assisted impregnation strategy to developed the Pt-NiMoOH/NMF with Pt sub-nanocluster distribution induced by a NiMoOH nanoarray on NiMo foam, resulting in an admired HER catalytic activity in alkaline seawater. The rich-defect NiMoOH nanosheet array strengthen the interaction with the Pt nanoclusters, not only effectively inhibiting the agglomeration of Pt, but also inducing the electron enrichment on the Pt surface by regulating electron local electronic environment. It is conducive to accelerating the water dissociation efficiency, enhancing the adsorption of protons and preventing the Ca/Mg clogging for active sites, and lead to remarkable improvements for HER performance. As a result, the Pt-NiMoOH/NMF electrocatalyst possessed a superior acid-like kinetics in 1 M KOH with a low Tafel slopes (38.6 mV dec −1 ) and overpotentials (66 mV at 500 mA cm −2 ). Significantly, it required an overpotential of 74 mV at 500 mA cm −2 and operated for 300 h continuously and stably in alkaline seawater condition. This work presents a novel strategy for enhancing catalytic performance in seawater by adjusting the interfacial interaction between metals and support.