Heterostructured Ni–Mo–N nanoparticles decorated on reduced graphene oxide as efficient and robust electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

Water electrolysis in alkaline electrolyte is a promising technology for large-scale hydrogen production. However, the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is quite sluggish in alkaline electrolyte. Developing highly active and stable non-noble metal electrocatalysts is highly desired to solve this issue but of great challenge. Here, we report a catalyst constructed by Ni–Mo–N nanoparticles decorated on nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide (Ni–Mo–N/NG). Due to the high intrinsic electrocatalytic activity of heterostructured Ni–Mo–N nanoparticles and synergistic effects between the nanoparticles and graphene, the catalyst exhibits excellent HER electrocatalytic activity with zero onset potential and 46.6 and 159.8 mV overpotentials for 10 and 100 mA cm−2, respectively, in alkaline electrolyte at low mass loading. Such electrocatalytic performances exceed those of many reported non-noble metal catalysts even with much higher mass loading, demonstrating the great potential of our Ni–Mo–N/NG catalysts for hydrogen production by water electrolysis.