Enhancing deuterium/hydrogen evolution performance through synergistic effects of Ni and V2O3

Compared to the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), the deuterium evolution reaction (DER) has slower kinetics that causes unsatisfactory performance of conventional HER catalysts in DER. Herein, we report a Ni/V2O3-500 catalyst with nanosheet morphology that shows excellent performance in both alkaline DER and HER with ultralow overpotential of 64 mV (in 1 M NaOD) and 32 mV (in 1 M NaOH) at 10 mA cm(-2). The activity remains stable after accelerated durability test and 1000 h of chronopotentiometric test at 500 mA cm(-2). The high performance is attributed to uniform dispersion of Ni nanoparticles and synergistic effects between Ni and V2O3. Density functional theory modeling demonstrates that the synergistic effect optimizes the adsorption of H*/D* intermediate, promoting the reaction rate. This study provides valuable insights into metal-support interactions in electrocatalysis which facilitates the development of superior DER/HER catalysts. The Ni/V2O3-500 shows great potential for industrial applications.