Effect of Mo content on porous Ni₃Al–Mo electrodes for hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Porous Ni₃Al–Mo electrodes were obtained by reactive synthesis methods with Mo contents of 2, 5, 10, 15 and 20 wt-% respectively. The microstructure, surface morphology and composition of the prepared porous Ni₃Al–Mo electrodes were analysed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) on the porous Ni₃Al–Mo electrodes in 6 mol L⁻¹ KOH solution was investigated by polarisation measurements and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) technique. It was shown that the hydrogen evolution activity of the porous Ni₃Al–Mo electrodes was related with the Mo content. The porous Ni₃Al–Mo electrode with optimum catalytic activity for the HER was found to contain the maximum Mo content of 10 wt-%.

Keywords:

• Hydrogen evolution reaction
• Porous Ni₃Al–Mo electrodes
• Reactive synthesis
• Powder metallurgy
• Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the financial supports from the 973 Program of China (Grant No. 2009CB623406), NSF of China (Grant Nos. 50825102, 51071178 and 20636020) and Grant No. 2012BAC02B05.