Facile and rapid synthesis of ultra‐low‐loading Pt‐based catalyst boosting electrocatalytic hydrogen production

The development of a low‐cost hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalyst is crucial for the implementation of hydrogen production via water hydrolysis. In this work, we report a facile and rapid electrodeposition method to synthesize an ultralow‐loading platinum‐based catalyst in a short time of 120 s without any other chemical additive. A functionalized nitrogen‐doped carbon nanotube (F‐N‐CNT) was utilized as a carbon support to controllably and effectively anchor the Pt species. With partially oxidized and unzipped, the surface of F‐N‐CNT is characterized with zig‐zag graphene‐like nano‐domains, which provide enriched deposition sites for Pt species and act as a buffer preventing the agglomeration and overloading of the Pt. Due to rational design of the exclusive interfacial chemical environment, the optimized Pt/F‐N‐CNTs catalyst possesses an ultra‐low loading of 1.37 wt.% but delivers a prominent HER activity superior to commercial 20 wt.% Pt/C. Therefore, this work provides a novel approach to preparing the Pt/C catalyst with outstanding activity and rational loading.