title: Weyl Semimetals as Hydrogen Evolution Catalysts.
abstract: The search for highly efficient and low-cost catalysts is one of the main driving forces in catalytic chemistry. Current strategies for the catalyst design focus on increasing the number and activity of local catalytic sites, such as the edge sites of molybdenum disulfides in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Here, the study proposes and demonstrates a different principle that goes beyond local site optimization by utilizing topological electronic states to spur catalytic activity. For HER, excellent catalysts have been found among the transition-metal monopnictides-NbP, TaP, NbAs, and TaAs-which are recently discovered to be topological Weyl semimetals. Here the study shows that the combination of robust topological surface states and large room temperature carrier mobility, both of which originate from bulk Dirac bands of the Weyl semimetal, is a recipe for high activity HER catalysts. This approach has the potential to go beyond graphene based composite photocatalysts where graphene simply provides a high mobility medium without any active catalytic sites that have been found in these topological materials. Thus, the work provides a guiding principle for the discovery of novel catalysts from the emerging field of topological materials.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, 01187, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Catherine R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Rajamathi
authors.affiliation: Chemistry and Physics Materials Unit, New Chemistry Unit and International Centre for Materials Science, Sheik Saqr Laboratory, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Jakkur P. O., Bangalore, 560064, India.
authors.forename: Uttam
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, 01187, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Nitesh
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics, 06120, Halle (Saale), Germany.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, 01187, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, 01187, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Vicky
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Süß
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, 01187, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Chandra
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shekhar
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, 01187, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Marcus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics, 06120, Halle (Saale), Germany.
authors.forename: Horst
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Blumtritt
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics, 06120, Halle (Saale), Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Werner
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, 01187, Dresden, Germany.|Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, 01187, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Binghai
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics, 06120, Halle (Saale), Germany.
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Parkin
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, 01187, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Felser
authors.affiliation: Chemistry and Physics Materials Unit, New Chemistry Unit and International Centre for Materials Science, Sheik Saqr Laboratory, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Jakkur P. O., Bangalore, 560064, India.
authors.forename: C N R
authors.initials: CNR
authors.lastname: Rao
keywords: Weyl semimetals; catalysts; hydrogen evolution reactions; topological materials