Enhanced electrocatalytic activity of WO3@NPRGO composite in a hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract Various non-noble metal-based electrocatalysts have been studied to replace platinum for hydrogen production. The formation of a composite through adding a conductive polymer could be an efficient way to further enhance the performance of those catalysts further but applying conductive polymers in electrochemical catalysis has been hardly ever reported. In this research, we synthesized an extraordinary WO 3 @NPRGO composite using phosphotungstic acid-polypyrrole/reduced graphene oxide (PW 12 -PPy/RGO) as a precursor. The oxidation polymerization of pyrrole (Py) monomers prevents the PW 12 and RGO from aggregating and WO 3 nanoparticles were homogeneously imbedded in the N, P-codoped RGO nanosheets, which not only exposed massive active sites, but also resulted in faster charge transfer. Electrochemical characterizations reveal that the composite exhibits greatly enhanced electrocatalytic activity and has impressive long-term stability for the hydrogen evolution reaction. Our works opens a new path for the design and synthesis of novel nanostructure electrocatalysts.