Self-Supporting Superaerophobic Electrode with Ni-Mo Anchoring on Cu Nanosheet Arrays Derived from Copper Foam for Hydrogen Evolution

A self-supporting superaerophobic electrode with Ni-Mo anchoring on nanosheet arrays derived from copper foam (NiMo/Cu/CF) has been fabricated for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The high specific surface area of 1.49 x 10(6) m(2) m(-3) can be obtained, and the lowest H-2 bubble adhesion force of 0.78 mu N between H-2 and the electrode is realized for NiMo/Cu/CF. NiMo/Cu/CF exhibited excellent HER performance, with low overpotentials of 24 and 123 mV at 10 and 100 mA cm(-2), respectively. In addition, the smallest Tafel slope of 88 mV dec(-1) can be realized. The electrode has superior long-term stability at 30 mA cm(-2) and can operate stably for 30 h. In addition, NiMo/Cu/CF parallel to RuO2/CF only requires 1.45 V to realize 10 mA cm(-2). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations revealed that the free energy of hydrogen adsorption for this self-supporting superaerophobic electrode is only 0.07 eV and the interaction between Mo and Ni bimetals modulates the electronic structure of the catalyst with high activity for HER.