开发清洁和可再生新能源是惠及国计民生的重大研究课题。氢能作为理想的新能源，其最具发展潜力的制备技术是电解水制氢。该技术的瓶颈之一是所采用的贵金属铂电催化剂稀缺，阻碍大规模工业化。开发高效、稳定且储量丰富的非贵金属电催化剂成为该领域的重要挑战。本项目拟利用富含丰产元素钼、钨且具有均一纳米尺寸的多酸为前驱体，设计制备新型高效非贵金属电解水制氢催化剂。一方面，对多酸本身控制还原或引入硫原子，构筑新型高还原态多酸和多酸基硫簇分子电催化剂；另一方面，利用多酸分子设计平台，精细调整多酸的组成、结构以及多酸与各类有机掺杂源（碳、氮、磷、硫等）、分散剂和附载材料的结合方式，合成各类多酸基前驱体，并进行控温热解，制备新型低价金属(钼/钨)氧化物、金属碳化物、磷化物、硫化物等电催化剂。研究多酸前驱体对电催化剂组成、形貌、晶相及电催化活性的影响，总结析氢电催化剂设计与制备的内在规律，实现电催化产氢领域新突破。

The exploration of new clean and renewable energy is the currently most important project for the national economy and the people’s livelihood. Hydrogen (H2) has been considered as an ideal alternative to fossil fuels due to it being clean, renewable and having high gravimetric energy density. The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) via an electrocatalytic water-splitting method is a promising approach for hydrogen production owing to its high energy conversion efficiency. A key problem of this method is seeking highly active electrocatalysts that can decrease the overpotential and promote the HER performance. Pt is now the most efficient electrocatalyst for the HER, but its low abundance and high cost prevent large scale applications. Thus, the development of non-noble metal catalysts with low cost and high catalytic activity has attracted great research interest and become a challenging project in this research field. In our project, the nanoscale polyoxometalates (POMs) with enriched molybdenum & tungsten metal centers will be used as the precursors to design and prepare new non-noble-metal electrocatalysts for HER. In one aspect, highly reduced POMs via controllable reduction method and new type of POM-based metal-sulfur clusters will be synthesized as new molecular electrocatalysts for HER. In another aspect, POMs will be employed as a molecular assembly platform to precisely tune various metal components and structural features. Furthermore, the combination of POMs with a series of organic dopants (C, N, P, S etc), dispersants and carrier materials will lead to various assemblies that can disperse POM units at the molecular level, which will be annealed at limited range so as to obtain new type of nanoscale low-valent metal (Mo/W) oxides, metal carbides, phosphide, and sulfide electrocatalytic materials. The effect of POM precursors on the component, pattern, phase and electrocatalytic activity of these electrocatalysts will be investigated in detail. Based on our project, brand new type of high efficient non-noble-metal electrocatalysts for HER via the electrocatalytic water-splitting method will be explored and bring the breakthrough for this research field.