Spot-free catalysis using gold carbon nanotube & gold graphene composites for hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Hydrogen has been proposed as the green fuel of the future in the wake of depleting fossil fuels. Recently, carbon paste electrodes (CPE) modified with nanomaterials as electrocatalysts have drawn wide attention for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in acid medium. The CPEs are advantageous owing to their chemical stability and ease of fabrication. Their applications for HER without any modification, however, are hampered on account of large hydrogen overpotential associated with carbon surface. In the present study, CPE has been modified with novel gold composites as electro-catalysts for HER in acid medium. The nanocomposites have shown ∼100 fold increased current density than unmodified CPE at −0.3 V. Most strikingly for the first time, this study has quantitatively brought out the difference in catalysis between surfactant capped and pristine gold nanoparticles in terms of their application as spot-free catalysts towards hydrogen gas production by electrochemical route.