Zn-Co needle-grass shape nanostructure in-situ grown on porous Nickle foam as an electrocatalyst for efficient HER

Abstract Due to the low cost and abundant reserves of transition metals, there is an urgent need for the design and fabrication of transition metal electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in order to facilitate hydrogen production. In this study, we present a self-supported needle-grass shaped Zn-Co composition on porous Nickel foam (NF) through typical hydrothermal synthesis. The Zn-Co/NF electrodes exhibit highly efficient HER performance in 1.0 M KOH alkaline solution. Specifically, the ZC (1:4)/NF catalyst requires only 98 mV overpotential at a current density of 50 mA cm⁻ ² due to the synergistic effect between the Zn-Co composition and Ni layers. Furthermore, stability tests reveal that after 1000 continuous cycles with a scan rate of 20 mV s⁻ ¹, there is only slight change observed in the LSV curves of ZC (1:4)/NF catalysts. This work provides a novel strategy for designing and fabricating efficient HER electrocatalysts.