Self-catalyzed growth of Cu@graphdiyne core–shell nanowires array for high efficient hydrogen evolution cathode

Highlights: • [email protected] core–shell nanowire arrays are synthesized by self-catalyzing growth method. • The [email protected] NA/CF exhibits greatly enhanced catalytic activity for hydrogen evolution. • Synergetic interaction between GD and Cu is crucial for the catalytic performance. Here we show that a high efficient hydrogen evolution reaction which was carried out on the in-situ growth of self-supported core-shell nanowires array consisting of graphdiyne as the shell and Cu as the core on Cu foams ([email protected] NA/CF). Subject to potential cycling treatment in 0.5 M H₂SO₄, the [email protected] NA/CF exhibits highly catalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction with an onset overpotential of 52 mV and a Tafel slope of 69 mV dec⁻¹. Our findings suggest that synergetic interaction between GD and Cu is crucial for the catalytic performance of the electrode. This electrode needs only overpotentials of 79 and 162 mV to achieve catalytic current densities of 10 and 100 mA cm^–2, respectively, and maintains its catalytic activity for almost 20 h. The attractive performances of such array make it promising candidate as a future high-performance catalyst for applications.