The hybrid Pt nanoclusters/Ru nanowires catalysts accelerating alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction

Water electrolysis via alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a promising approach for large-scale production of high-purity hydrogen at a low cost, utilizing renewable and clean energy. However, the sluggish kinetics derived from the high energy barrier of water dissociation impedes seriously its practical application. Herein, a series of hybrid Pt nanoclusters/Ru nanowires (Pt/Ru NWs) catalysts are demonstrated to accelerate alkaline HER. And the optimized Pt/Ru NWs (10 ​% wt Pt) exhibits exceptional performance with an ultralow overpotential (24 ​mV at 10 ​mA ​cm−2), a small Tafel slope (26.3 ​mV dec−1), and long-term stability, outperforming the benchmark commercial Pt/C-JM-20 ​% wt catalyst. This amazing performance also occurred in the alkaline anion-exchange membrane water electrolysis devices, where it delivered a cell voltage of about 1.9 ​V at 1 ​A ​cm−2 and an outstanding stability (more than 100 ​h). The calculations have revealed such a superior performance exhibited by Pt/Ru NWs stems from the formed heterointerfaces, which significantly reduce the energy barrier of the decisive rate step of water dissociation via cooperative-action between Pt cluster and Ru substance. This work provides valuable perspectives for designing advanced materials toward alkaline HER and beyond. In the formed Pt-Ru heterointerface of Pt nanoclusters/Ru nanowires (NWs) catalysts, one H∗ produced by hydrolysis dissociation on Ru sites will transfer to Pt, then recombine neighboring H∗ on Ru to facilitate H2 evolution. In this way, energy barrier of water dissociation was apparently reduced. Thus Pt/Ru NWs (10%wt Pt) catalysts exhibit excellent alkaline HER performance, surpassing most of reported catalysts even 20 ​wt% Pt/C-JM. [Display omitted]