Rhodium/graphitic-carbon-nitride composite electrocatalyst facilitates efficient hydrogen evolution in acidic and alkaline electrolytes.

Exploring the highly efficient and durable electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is vitally necessary for sustainable energy conversion and storage system. Herein, we fabricate an interfacial engineered Rh-carbon nitride as advanced electrocatalysts for HER in the acidic and alkaline electrolytes. The interface between Rh nanocrystals and carbon nitride may adjust the electronic structure of Rh, which results in high activity for HER. The optimal Rh-carbon nitride shows low overpotential at current density of -10 mA·cm and small Tafel slope (13 mV and 25.0 mV dec in 0.5 M HSO, 46 mV and 42.0 mV dec in 1.0 M KOH, respectively), which is superior to that of commercial Pt/C (21 mV and 28.5 mV dec in 0.5 M HSO, 55 mV and 44.0 mV dec in 1.0 M KOH, respectively). Importantly, this composite also exhibits long-term stability in 0.5 M HSO and 1.0 M KOH. The excellent HER performances can be attribute to the interface between Rh and carbon nitride, which downshifts their d-band center positions, tuning the adsorption ability for hydrogen and accelerating the HER kinetics. This work may open up an efficient method to design metal/carbon hybrid for electrocatalysis.