Hydrogen energy is a new generation of renewable energy with great potential for development. Hydrogen production by electrolysis of water is a common and efficient process at present, but the high price of traditional noble metal catalyst is not conducive to wide application for large-scale hydrogen production system. Therefore, the development of cheap, high performance, excellent stability of new electrolytic water catalyst, and then replacing the traditional noble metal catalyst, is the key problem which is urgently need to be solved in the field of electrocatalytic water splitting. In recent years, transition metal-based water electrolysis catalysts (such as Ni₂P) have been proven to have excellent water electrolysis catalytic activity, while the synthesis of highly active nickel-based catalysts remains a major challenge.

Aiming at the key problems in the field of electrolytic water hydrogen production, our group developed three kinds of water electrolytic catalysts, as following NixSy@MnOxHy, Mn-Ni_xS_y /Ni₂P and MnO_x/NiFeP. The three catalysts showed excellent electrochemical performance, and those works was published in high-level journals of Nano Micro Letters, SCIENCE CHINA Materials, and Small, respectively.