A novel Ni–La-Nd-Y flim on Ni foam to enhance hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline media

The exploration of non-precious metal catalysts has always been a hot topic. Here, a new type of Ni–La-Nd-Y film was electrodeposited on nickel foam (NF). The Ni–La-Nd-Y film shows outstanding HER activity and stability under alkaline conditions. La2NiO4 makes the electrode surface present a regular layered structure, which greatly increases the number of electrochemically active sites. Ni–La-Nd-Y only needs 46 mV overpotential driving current density of 10 mA cm−2 in 1MKOH solution, which is very close to the HER performance of metal Pt. By doping rare earth elements and taking advantage of the shrinkage characteristics of lanthanides, this work took advantage of the shrinkage characteristics of the lanthanide series and found new ideas for improving catalysts through the combination of different rare earth elements.