Our recent research work,“Highly efficient and durable MoNiNC catalyst for hydrogen evolutionreaction”, has been published on the Nano Energy (Nano Energy2017, 37, 1-6).

The electrolysis of water to hydrogen (HER, hydrogen evolution reaction) is a process that offers the prospect ofproviding carbon-neutral and genuinely sustainable energy. Herein, we designed a facile carbothermal ammonia reduction (CAR)strategy to prepare a quaternary molybdenum-based carbonitrideelectrocatalyst for HER. In this strategy, resin is applied both as the pre-binder and carbon source. Upon annealing in NH3, the Mo-containing precursor bound on Ni foam undergoes the CAR, andsimultaneously Ni from the substrate diffuses out, resulting in the formation of a quaternary complex structureof molybdenum-nickel bimetallic carbonitride (MoNiNC). The results of the experiments combined with the density functional theory (DFT) calculations highlight the cooperation of these four elements toward reducing the hydrogen bindingenergy and thus enhancing the electrocatalytic performance. Ourstrategy is anticipated to promote various functional quaternarycatalysts based on the carbonitrides of early transition metals.

The outstanding work was promoted by our previous fundamental research on resin-based carbon materials (carbon, 2012, 50, 1807-1816; Chem. Mater. , 2008, 20, 1881-1888), and supported by National NaturalScience Foundation of China, China Ministry of Science and Technology, the Youth Innovation PromotionAssociation of the CAS, the Scientific Research Project of theEducation Department of Liaoning Province and the Fundamental Research Funds for the CentralUniversities.