Smoothing effect of H3BO3 on hydrogen evolution catalyst and the promotion of hydrogen evolution

Hydrogen is a vital clean energy, and reducing overpotential in hydrogen evolution has become necessary research, in which CoMo bimetal material is a promising high-efficiency hydrogen evolution material. In this study, boron was added to MoCo bimetallic ion catalysts with carbon cloth and copper foil substrates, and it was found that adding boron could significantly reduce the hydrogen evolution overpotential of the catalysts. The morphology analysis by SEM showed that the addition of boric acid in the electrolyte could change the morphology of the catalyst, making the surface of the catalyst smooth and uniform distribution on the carrier, while the surface of the catalyst without boric acid formed agglutination. The prepared CoMoB-CC catalyst has an overpotential of 44.1 mV when the current density is -10 mA·cm−2. This paper primarily presents interesting phenomenon of the smooth effect of boric acid on the catalytic electrode, and the prepared catalyst has good catalytic performance, which provides some help for the preparation of hydrogen evolution materials.