Electronic regulation of platinum species on metal nitrides realizes superior mass activity for hydrogen production.

Developing high-active electrocatalyst to improve the efficiency of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is critical to achieve clean hydrogen. However, the low mass activity and high cost of this technology still limits its wide commercial application. Herein, a new kind of hybrid material is designed by introducing trace Pt species onto a mixed metal nitride matrixs (denoted as NiWNx), presenting as an excellent electrocatalyst for HER. The prepared Pt-NiWNx hybrid possesses abundant heterointerfaces, high conductivity and strong electron interactions, facilitating the reaction kinetics for hydrogen production. As a result, the Pt-NiWNx only needs a small overpotential of 61 mV to reach the geometric current density of 100 mA cm-2 in alkaline electrolyte. Notably, this kind of catalyst delivers a superior mass activity of 32.8 A mgPt-1 at -0.1 V and high durability, exhibiting the promising prospects for industrial application. This work offers a novel design strategy for high-efficient hybrid materials for scaled hydrogen generation.