In the present article, we studied the catalytic activity of magnetron sputtered Mo, V, Ni, and Co thin films for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in the alkaline electrolyte. We have observed for some metals a very large increase of HER activity for thin films sputtered at elevated temperatures when compared metals sputtered at room temperature. Structural analysis reveals that Mo and V prepared at 800 °C have fcc structure as opposed to room-temperature sputtered Mo and V thin films which have bcc structure. All room temperature and high temperature prepared thin films of Ni and Co had fcc structure. Impedance spectroscopy data indicate that fcc Mo is a better catalyst than fcc Ni, which is considered an industry standard for non-noble pure metal-based catalysts in alkaline media. Stability tests also suggest that fcc-Mo thin film catalysts prepared at 800 °C are more durable catalysts than Ni thin films. Our study points out that structure phases of catalysts can be a key factor governing the activity of transition metals for HER in alkaline media.
The results of our study were published in International Journal of Hydrogen Energy [M.Kozejová et al. Structural dependence of the hydrogen evolution reaction on transition metal catalysts sputtered at different temperatures in an alkaline medium. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 47 (2022) 26987-26999], which has an impact factor of 7.139.
