Interstitial Hydrogen Atom to Boost Intrinsic Catalytic Activity of Tungsten Oxide for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Abstract

Tungsten oxide (WO₃ ) is an appealing electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) owing to its cost-effectiveness and structural adjustability. However, the WO₃ electrocatalyst displays undesirable intrinsic activity for the HER, which originates from the strong hydrogen adsorption energy. Herein, for effective defect engineering, a hydrogen atom inserted into the interstitial lattice site of tungsten oxide (H_0.23 WO₃ ) is proposed to enhance the catalytic activity by adjusting the surface electronic structure and weakening the hydrogen adsorption energy. Experimentally, the H_0.23 WO₃ electrocatalyst is successfully prepared on reduced graphene oxide. It exhibits significantly improved electrocatalytic activity for HER, with a low overpotential of 33 mV to drive a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 and ultra-long catalytic stability at high-throughput hydrogen output (200 000 s, 90 mA cm^-2 ) in acidic media. Theoretically, density functional theory calculations indicate that strong interactions between interstitial hydrogen and lattice oxygen lower the electron density distributions of the d-orbitals of the active tungsten (W) centers to weaken the adsorption of hydrogen intermediates on W-sites, thereby sufficiently promoting fast desorption from the catalyst surface. This work enriches defect engineering to modulate the electron structure and provides a new pathway for the rational design of efficient catalysts for HER.