Water electrolysis has been regarded as a promising technology to produce clean hydrogen fuel with high purity. However, large-scale water electrolysis has been greatly hindered due to the lack of non-noble metal catalysts with high catalytic performance. Benefitting from unique hollow structures with large surface area and adjustable chemical compositions, hollow design plays an important role in improving the electrocatalytic performance for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, we report an effective multi-step strategy to prepare hierarchical Co-decorated Mo₂C hollow spheres (CMCHSs) as electrocatalyst for HER. To be specific, the preparation process involves a metal-chelated polymerization and a subsequent surface modulation process. Owing to the unique hollow structure and incorporation of Co species, the as-prepared CMCHSs demonstrate largely enhanced HER performance with a low overpotential of 139 mV at the current density of 10 mA·cm⁻² and good cycling durability in acid. The present research work highlights a new feasible strategy for the design of HER electrocatalyst via hollow designs and surface engineering.

Graphical abstract

中文翻译：

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形成分层共装饰的 Mo2C 空心球以增强析氢

水电解被认为是一种生产高纯度清洁氢燃料的有前途的技术。然而，由于缺乏具有高催化性能的非贵金属催化剂，大规模水电解受到很大阻碍。得益于具有大表面积和可调化学成分的独特中空结构，中空设计在提高析氢反应（HER）的电催化性能方面发挥着重要作用。在此，我们报告了一种有效的多步骤策略来制备分层共装饰 Mo ₂C空心球（CMCHS）作为HER的电催化剂。具体而言，制备过程包括金属螯合聚合和随后的表面调制过程。由于独特的空心结构和 Co 物种的掺入，所制备的 CMCHS 表现出大大增强的 HER 性能，在 10 mA·cm ^-2的电流密度下具有 139 mV 的低过电位和良好的酸循环耐久性。目前的研究工作突出了通过中空设计和表面工程设计 HER 电催化剂的新可行策略。

图形概要