Electrospinning‐Derived FeCrNiZrMn High‐Entropy Alloy on Carbon Nanofibers for Hydrogen Evolution

ABSTRACT Due to increasing demand for sustainable energy systems, hydrogen energy, as a green and low‐carbon energy carrier, has considerable potential for development. The electrocatalytic water splitting is one of the key ways to produce green hydrogen, but high costs and resource limitations of Pt‐based catalysts limit their large‐scale use. As a result, exploring high‐performance, low‐cost non‐noble metal HER catalysts have emerged as a research focus. This work has been focused on the investigation of FeCrNiZrMn/CNFs high‐entropy alloy catalysts. A series of catalyst materials were prepared through electrospinning techniques with subsequent high‐temperature carbonization at 700°C–900°C. The experimental results showed that the FeCrNiZrMn/CNFs synthesized at 800°C could form uniformly distributed and crystallographically stable high‐entropy alloy nanoparticles, achieving exceptional performance for the HER under alkaline conditions, with an overpotential of 57 mV at 10 mA/cm 2 and a Tafel slope of 29.2 mV/dec, and maintaining 99.3% voltage stability during a 16‐h constant current test. Theoretical results from DFT suggested that the high‐entropy alloy surface has diverse hydrogen adsorption sites and a tunable electronic structure. The differential charge density analysis furthers interpretation of the electron transfer behavior during hydrogen adsorption, and reveals the intrinsic mechanism of its efficient catalysis.