A Ta-TaS₂ monolith catalyst with robust and metallic interface for superior hydrogen evolution

The development of highly-active and robust catalysts is crucial for green hydrogen production through water electrolysis. While noble metals like platinum are currently used, their scarcity, high cost, and performance limitations hinder large-scale implementation. This work reports the synthesis of a tantalum sulfide (Ta-TaS₂) monolith catalyst with a mechanically robust and electrically near-zero-resistance interface, resulting in superior hydrogen evolution performance, rapid charge transfer, and excellent durability. The catalyst achieves a current density of 2000 mA cm⁻² at a low overpotential of 398 mV and shows negligible performance decay after 200 hours of operation at high current densities.

Qiangmin Yu, Zhiyuan Zhang, Siyao Qiu, Yuting Luo, Zhibo Liu, Fengning Yang, Heming Liu, Shiyu Ge, Xiaolong Zou, Baofu Ding, Wencai Ren, Hui-Ming Cheng, Chenghua Sun, Bilu Liu