Iridium- and osmium-decorated reduced graphenes as promising catalysts for hydrogen evolution

• Main Authors: Lim, Chee Shan, Sofer, Zdeněk, Toh, Rou Jun, Eng, Alex Yong Sheng, Luxa, Jan, Pumera, Martin
• Other Authors: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Chemistry::Physical chemistry::Catalysis
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/107352; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/25611; http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cphc.201500174
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Renewable energy sources are highly sought after as a result of numerous worldwide problems concerning the environment and the shortage of energy. Currently, the focus in the field is on the development of catalysts that are able to provide water splitting catalysis and energy storage for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). While platinum is an excellent material for HER catalysis, it is costly and rare. In this work, we investigated the electrocatalytic abilities of various graphene–metal hybrids to replace platinum for the HER. The graphene materials were doped with 4f metals, namely, iridium, osmium, platinum and rhenium, as well as 3d metals, namely, cobalt, iron and manganese. We discovered that a few hybrids, in particular iridium- and osmium-doped graphenes, have the potential to become competent electrocatalysts owing to their low costs and—more importantly—to their promising electrochemical performances towards the HER. One of the more noteworthy observations of this work is the superiority of these two hybrids over MoS2, a well-known electrocatalyst for the HER.