Non-Precious Multimetallic Catalyst with Bimodal Porous Stucture for High-Performance Hydrogen Evolution Activity

Bridging the gap between noble and non-noble metal catalysts for hydrogen-evolution reaction (HER) is a critical step for achieving hydrogen economy for clean and sustainable energy future. Here we found that a proper arrangement of copper-titanium (Cu-Ti) atoms produces highly active surface with a high density of reaction sites exhibiting an optimum hydrogen binding energy similar to that of platinum (Pt). A non-noble element Cu-Ti bimetal catalyst with such surface was designed with monolithic and bimodal pore structure to achieve over doubled improvement in total activity of HER comparing to state-of-the-art carbon supported Pt (Pt/C) catalyst. The morphological control of material pore sets simultaneously enhanced the exposed catalytic surface area and transportation of electrolytic ions and gas bubbles; the intact metallic structure provided high-conductivity and eliminated the necessity of using supporting substrate, both of which enabled the realization of much higher mass loading for industrial application than traditional particle-based electrocatalysts.