Highly dispersed electrocatalytic materials were obtained by vacuum deposition of catalytic metals on electromechanically suspended graphite powder particles. Graphite electrodes, vacuum-deposited with various metals (Ni, Pt, Au, Pd, Rh) or an alloy (Cu-Al), were bonded with an inorganic polymer, LaPO4. A.c. impedance and steady-state polarization methods were used to investigate the mechanism and kinetics of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in 1 M KOH at 25 degrees C for Pt/C, Pd/C and Rh/C electrodes. It was concluded that the HER follows a Volmer-Heyrovsky mechanism.