Yu Sun^{1,2, #}, Manman Qi^{3, #}, Xin Tan^{4, #,} *, Shiyi Tao¹, Chen Jia², Yachao Zeng³, Yulian Zhao¹, Kaiqiang Liu¹, Sean C. Smith⁵, Lingxing Zan⁶, Somnath Mukherjee¹, Kamran Dastafkan², Zenglin Wang¹, Yi Ma^1, *, Xin Bo^1, *, and Chuan Zhao^2, *, Nano Energy, 2025, 146, 111489. DOI: 10.1016/j.nanoen.2025.111489

Anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) presents a practical approach for green H₂ production. However, the cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in basic media is still sluggish as the lack of the cost-efficient catalysts for further industrialization. Here, the heterostructured catalysts combining nucleophilic and oxophilic components facilitate water dissociation and enhance HER and synthesized via a facile gel-route, featuring abundant interfaces between N-doped NiMo alloy and MoO₂ particles. The heterostructured catalyst exhibits exceptional HER activity comparable to 60%PtC catalysts in basic media (pH = 7~14), delivering high current densities of >1 A cm^-2 with long-term durability. AEMWE simulation demonstrates a low cell voltage of 1.87 V at 1 A cm^-2, even with dilute 0.1 M KOH electrolyte. DFT calculations support the interfacial excitation that MoO₂ clusters and N-doped NiMo alloy act synergistically to facilitate water dissociation and optimize *H binding, thereby accelerating hydrogen evolution kinetics. This work offers a practical approach for scalable fabrication of high performance, nonprecious-metal-based electrocatalysts for real application of AEMWE.

First Authors: Sun Yu, master’s student, Shaanxi Normal University; Dr. Qi Manman, postdoc, University of Delaware; Prof. Tan Xin, Wenzhou University

Corresponding Authors: A/Prof. Ma Yi and A/Prof. Bo Xin, Shaanxi Normal University; Prof. Zhao Chuan, University of New South Wales

Full Text Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2025.111489