Alloying platinum single atoms with nickel iron nanoalloys for high performance hydrogen evolution reaction

A single-atom catalyst is viewed as potential catalyst because it maintains high catalytic activity and reduces the quantity of precious metals. However, the sluggish alkaline water dissociation and deactivation during catalysis hindered their use for industrial-scale hydrogen production. In the study presented here, these challenges are addressed by creating a Pt single-atom alloy with NiFe on a carbon support that possesses an exceptionally high activity for hydrogen evolution reaction under alkaline media. A substantial decrease in water dissociation energy is achieved by combining the Pt single-atom alloy with the NiFe alloy. In addition, the alloy's metallic composition facilitates the transformation of H∗ into H₂. Thus, the best Pt single-atom alloy with NiFe at carbon support catalyst considerably boosts HER catalytic activity, exhibiting a near-zero onset potential and a lower overpotential of 18 mV to achieve a current density of −10 mAcm⁻² with a high mass activity of 18.11 A mg⁻¹ at 100 mV.