Dual-regulated NiMoCu catalyst on nickel foam by one-step electrodeposition for industrial alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction

Industrial alkaline water electrolysis is a key technology for scalable green hydrogen production, yet developing low-cost non-noble-metal cathode catalysts to replace noble metals while maintaining high activity and long-term stability under industrially relevant alkaline conditions remains challenging. Herein, a NiMoCu catalyst with a unique dense and hydrophilic nanosphere morphology is fabricated on nickel foam (NF) by one-step electrodeposition. After systematic optimization of the reaction conditions through single-factor and orthogonal experiments, the optimized NiMoCu@NF exhibits high intrinsic catalytic activity and excellent hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance. In 1 M KOH, it requires overpotentials of only 118 mV at 100 mA cm−2 and can operate stably for 100 h. The enhanced performance arises from the mutual modulation between Mo and Cu, together with the ternary synergistic effect within NiMoCu. The dense hydrophilic nanosphere architecture promotes electrolyte infiltration and facilitates gas release. Mo suppresses the formation of closed dendritic structures and promotes the exposure of active sites, while Cu improves electrical conductivity and induces electronic redistribution around Mo sites, thereby facilitating rapid water adsorption and dissociation and accelerating alkaline HER kinetics. Under industrial anion exchange membrane (AEM) conditions (6 M KOH, 80 °C), the electrolyzer achieves an electrolyzer efficiency of 72.27% and a voltage efficiency of 86.05% at 100 mA cm−2. At the industrially relevant current density of 200 mA cm−2, it requires only 1.89 V and maintains stable operation for 40 h. This study offers fresh insights into the development of high-performance nickel-based HER catalysts.