Herein, V-doped cobalt hydroxides grown on carbon cloth (V-Co(OH)2/CC) were prepared via hydrothermal method. The incorporation of V can trigger phase transition and tune the local electronic structure of Co(OH)2, thereby improving the intrinsic alkaline HER activity. We find that the V-Co(OH)2 dominated by β-Co(OH)2 exhibits excellent HER activity with only 83 mV overpotential at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, which outperforms most reported hydroxide-based catalysts and even surpasses the commercial Pt/C at large current density (>160 mA cm−2).
