Earth-Abundant and Precious Group Metal-Free Electrocatalysts for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) in Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) Based Water Electrolysis

摘要: Generation of clean and sustainable hydrogen is critical for heralding the much touted hydrogen economy. Water electrolysis has been considered a favorable option for clean hydrogen production. Furthermore, acid mediated proton exchange membrane (PEM) based water electrolysis is considered one of the most efficient and reliable technologies among all existing conventional hydrogen production approaches1-7. To achieve the desired efficiency and reliability, it is imperative to identify high performance and earth-abundant electrocatalysts for expediting the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In the present work, utilizing the density functional theory (DFT) based calculations for rationalizing the thermodynamics and reaction kinetics, we have identified and synthesized the platinum group metal (PGM)-free, transition metal non-oxide (TMN) based electrocatalysts for acidic HER. Based on the DFT …