Intermetallic Fe2Mo Nanoparticles on Hierarchical Nanoporous Copper for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Developing cost-effective and high-performance non-precious metal-based electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction is of crucial importance toward sustainable hydrogen energy systems. Herein, we prepare a novel hybrid electrode featuring intermetallic Fe2Mo nanoparticles anchored on the hierarchical nanoporous copper skeleton as robust hydrogen evolution electrocatalyst by simple and scalable alloying and dealloying methods. By virtue of the highly active intermetallic Fe2Mo nanoparticles and unique bicontinuous nanoporous copper skeleton facilitating ion/molecule transportation, nanoporous Fe2Mo/Cu electrode shows excellent hydrogen evolution reaction electrocatalysis, with a low Tafel slope (~71 mV dec−1) to realize ampere-level current density of 1 A cm−2 at a low overpotential of ~200 mV in 1 M KOH electrolyte. Furthermore, nanoporous Fe2Mo/Cu electrode exhibits long−term stability exceeding 400 h to maintain ~250 mA cm−2 at an overpotential of 150 mV. Such outstanding electrocatalytic performance enables the nanoporous Fe2Mo/Cu electrode to be an attractive hydrogen evolution reaction catalyst for water splitting in the hydrogen economy.