Enhancing the electronic metal-support interaction of CoRu alloy and pyridinic N for electrocatalytic pH-universal hydrogen evolution reaction

[Display omitted] •The CoRu/NC-700 electrocatalyst was synthesized with ZIF-67 as precursor.•CoRu/NC-700 exhibits excellent HER performance and stability in the wide range of pH.•Pyridinic N synergistically enhanced the HER activity of CoRu alloy nanoparticals. The construction of efficient pH-universal hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts remain enormous challenges for hydrogen production from water electrolysis. Herein, we reported a HER electrocatalyst composed of cobalt-ruthenium alloy nanoparticles with the synergy of pyridinic N (CoRu/NC-700). CoRu/NC-700 exhibits excellent HER performance and stability in acidic, alkaline and neutral media, and can reach 10 mA cm−2 with overpotential of only 6, 10 and 30 mV, respectively. Especially in alkaline and acidic media, overpotential of only 217 and 227 mV are required to achieve 1000 mA cm−2, respectively, which is of great significance for industrialized hydrogen produced by electrolysis of water. KSCN and H3PO4 poisoning experiments prove that such high HER activity is attributed to the synergistic enhancement effect of pyridinic N on CoRu nanoparticles. This work will lay the foundation for the designing and development of novel and efficient pH-universal HER electrocatalysts.