Tuning the Local Environment of Pt Species at CNT@MO_2–<i>x</i> (M = Sn and Ce) Heterointerfaces for Boosted Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution

Abstract

As the most promising hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts, platinum (Pt)-based catalysts still struggle with sluggish kinetics and expensive costs in alkaline media. Herein, we accelerate the alkaline hydrogen evolution kinetics by optimizing the local environment of Pt species and metal oxide heterointerfaces. The well-dispersed PtRu bimetallic clusters with adjacent MO2–x (M = Sn and Ce) on carbon nanotubes (PtRu/CNT@MO2–x) are demonstrated to be a potential electrocatalyst for alkaline HER, exhibiting an overpotential of only 75 mV at 100 mA cm–2 in 1 M KOH. The excellent mass activity of 12.3 mA μg–1Pt+Ru and specific activity of 32.0 mA cm–2ECSA at an overpotential of 70 mV are 56 and 64 times higher than those of commercial Pt/C. Experimental and theoretical investigations reveal that the heterointerfaces between Pt clusters and MO2–x can simultaneously promote H2O adsorption and activation, while the modification with Ru further optimizes H adsorption and H2O dissociation energy barriers. Then, the matching kinetics between the accelerated elementary steps achieved superb hydrogen generation in alkaline media. This work provides new insight into catalytic local environment design to simultaneously optimize the elementary steps for obtaining ideal alkaline HER performance.