Abstract: Ion implantation method was used for the doping of mild steel substrates with Ni and Mo. The mild steel was bombarded with 1×10~(16) ions·cm~(-2) of Ni and Mo. The resulting catalysts were tested with respect to their activity for the electrochemical H~+-reduction. The results indicate that implanted mild steel exhibit low hydrogen overvoltage (130～160 mV, 20～60 A·dm~(-2) in 30 wt% KOH at 25 ℃) and excellent stability. The Ni and Mo bombardments lead to a much more active in comparison with untreated mild steel. Ion beam mixing is less effective than ion implantation in this case. By XPS the shifts of electron bonding energies for Ni_(2p) and Mo_(3d) were observed for implanted mild steel with respect to the corresponding Ni and Mo. The electrocatalytic activity of implanted substrates was explained provisionally by an interaction between implanted metals in mild steel.

Key words: Ion implantation, Electrocatalysis, Electrochemical hydrogen evolution, Electrode