Molybdenum oxide/nickel molybdenum oxide heterostructures hybridized active platinum co-catalyst toward superb-efficiency water splitting catalysis

A new catalyst has been developed that utilizes molybdenum oxide (MoO₃)/nickel molybdenum oxide (NiMoO₄) heterostructured nanorods coupled with Pt ultrafine nanoparticles for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) toward industrial-grade water splitting. This catalyst has been synthesized using a versatile approach and has shown to perform better than noble-metals catalysts, such as Pt/C and RuO₂, at industrial-grade current level (≥1000 mA·cm⁻²). When used simultaneously as a cathode and anode, the proposed material yields 10 mA·cm⁻² at a remarkably small cell voltage of 1.55 V and has shown extraordinary durability for over 50 h. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have proved that the combination of MoO₃ and NiMoO₄ creates a metallic heterostructure with outstanding charge transfer ability. The DFT calculations have also shown that the excellent chemical coupling effect between the MoO₃/NiMoO₄ and Pt synergistically optimize the charge transfer capability and Gibbs free energies of intermediate species, leading to remarkably speeding up the reaction kinetics of water electrolysis.