HER is a key reaction which occurs in the electrolysis of water for the production of hydrogen for both industrial energy applications,[4] as well as small-scale laboratory research.
Due to the abundance of water on Earth, hydrogen production poses a potentially scalable process for fuel generation.
The performance of a catalyst can be characterized by the level of adsorption of hydrogen into binding sites of the metal surface, as well as the overpotential of the reaction as current density increases.
[4] The high cost and energy input from water electrolysis poses a challenge to the large scale implementation of hydrogen power.
[10] As such, low-cost, high-efficiency, and scalable alternative materials for the HER catalysts in PEM electrolyzers are a point of research interest for scientists.