Currently, the numerous research efforts have focused on the development of efficient non-nobble-metal electrocatalysts toward electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) for producing high-purity hydrogen, which has been recognized as a cost-effective and eco-friendly fuel to satisfy global energy demands in the future.

Herein, an active HER electrocatalyst based on Zn-Co-P nanoneedle arrays growing directly on the surface of three-dimensional (3D) nickel foam (Zn-Co-P NNs/3D-NF) was successfully synthesized via the simple and low-cost methods. The combination of desired properties for electrocatalysts such as 3D hierarchical nanostructure containing large surface area and abundant electroactive sites for fast diffusion and mass transfer of reactant/electrolyte, highly physical stability for strongly catalytic durability along with the remarkable feature of 1D porous structure of Zn-Co-P NN providing richly active sites for HER resulted in a highly electrocatalytic activity. Interesting, in the introduction of Zn, the Zn-Co-P NNs/3D-NF provides rich edge sites and defects for exposing more active sides, leading to the great enhancing in active surface area, and thereby improving HER catalytic activity. The obtained Zn-Co-P NNs/3D-NF catalyst shown high electrocatalytic efficiency toward HER with the requirement of low overpotential of 138 mV and 210 mV to reach a current density of 10 and 50 mA cm⁻² in alkaline media, respectively, together with rapid kinetic at a small Tafel slope of 81.9 mV dec⁻¹. In addition to highly electrocatalytic performance, the Zn-Co-P NNs/3D-NF catalyst also shown the superior durability at −0.138 V, this allowed the production process of H₂ to continually occur at least 12 h with retaining a constant current density of 10 mA cm⁻².

More importantly, our research offered an attractive approach to design non-noble-metal electrocatalysts in the requirement of cost-effectiveness, high catalytic activity, and strong stability for practical HER application.

The publication has the contribution of Dr. Vũ Thiên Ý, Lecturer of Faculty of Pharmacy and published on Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry volume 858, February 2020. Fulltext could be downloaded from here.