Executive Summary : | The International Energy Agency predicts a 30% increase in global energy demand by 2040, with hydrogen being a clean fuel due to its high gravimetric energy density and storage and release capabilities. India's National Hydrogen Mission aims to become a global hub for green hydrogen production and export. However, slow kinetics during hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) limit the practical large-scale application of noble metal-based catalysts. Non-native metal-free materials like transition metal disulfides, metal carbides, and metal phosphides have been used as potential catalysts for hydrogen evolution processes, but their performance is inadequate in neutral and alkaline media. This project aims to design two-dimensional nanostructured materials using hydrothermal and chemical vapour deposition techniques, which can perform well at high current densities in a wide pH range. Nanostructured materials with optimized morphology and surface chemistry will have many exposed active sites, beneficial for in-plane electron transfer during the HER process. The catalytic performance can be enhanced by increasing surface active sites, such as transition metal carbide groups, which show good activity for HER. P-doping can introduce small cations interactions between monolayers and underlying substrates, improving catalytic performance in alkaline media. The project will investigate the interconnection between nanostructured materials' morphology and substrates and surface chemistry at the atomic scale at high current density of HER. The expertise of PI in nanoparticle synthesis, electro-catalysis, and surface spectroscopy will enable successful implementation of the proposed work. |