A facile synthesis of Ru/N-C as an efficient and cost-effective electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution

The preparation of a highly active, cost-effective catalyst is the key to the commercial production of hydrogen through the electrochemical splitting of water, which is an ideal route to a clean energy conversion and storage system in the future. Unfortunately, the current catalysts for HER are rarely able to balance performance and cost. Herein, we successfully prepared an efficient catalyst (Ru/N-C) for HER by a facile method through a multi-step pyrolysis hard template. The electrochemical tests show that the HER activity of the synthesized Ru/N-C-6% catalyst with an onset potential of 0 mV and an overpotential of 34 mV at 10 mA cm −2 was comparable to that of Pt/C in 1 M KOH. Moreover, after 10 000 cycles, the potential change at 10 mA cm −2 is almost negligible. The origin of this high activity was analyzed via density functional theory (DFT), and the mechanism is further understood. Therefore, this work provides a promising substitute for Pt-based catalysts. This work provides a HER catalyst synthesis strategy with performance comparable to commercial Pt/C at a cost of only 0.6%.