Polypyrrole Hollow Microspheres with Boosted Hydrophilic Properties for Enhanced Hydrogen Evolution Water Dissociation Kinetics

Abstract

The water dissociation step (H₂O + M + e^- → M - H_ads + OH^-) is a crucial one toward achieving high-performance hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The application of electronic conducting polymers (ECPs), such as polypyrrole (PPy), as the electrocatalyst for HER is rarely reported because of their poor adsorption energy per water molecule, which hinders the Volmer step. Herein, we strongly enrich PPy hollow microspheres (PPy-HMS) with attractive HER activity by enhancing their hydrophilic properties through hybridization with good water affinity SiO₂. The as-prepared PPy-coated SiO₂ (PPy@SiO₂-HMS) achieves a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 at -123 mV, which is lower than that of pristine PPy-HMS (-192 mV). Raman and X-ray photospectroscopy analyses reveal that the enhanced HER catalytic capability can be attributed to the strong electronic couplings between PPy and SiO₂, and this improves the adsorption energy per water molecule and in turn accelerates the water dissociation kinetics on PPy. This work highlights the potential application of low-cost ECPs as promising electrocatalysts for water electrolysis.