Boron-rich environment boosting ruthenium boride on B, N doped carbon outperforms platinum for hydrogen evolution reaction in a universal pH range

Developing cost-effective and stable electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in a universal pH range is highly desirable toward renewable energy systems but remains a great challenge. In this work, we report a novel B-rich diruthenium triboride electrocatalyst homogeneously dispersed on the B, N doped carbon nanofiber (Ru2B3@BNC) synthesized at a moderate temperature (600 °C). Electrochemical tests reveal that such a Ru2B3@BNC electrocatalyst owns surprising HER performance with ultralow overpotentials (η) of 7, 41, and 58 mV to achieve 10 mA cm−2 in 1 M KOH, 0.5 M H2SO4, and 1 M PBS (pH = 7) solutions, respectively, outperforming commercial Pt/C and all reported state-of-the-art electrocatalysts, as well as superior durability. Combining density functional theory (DFT) computational Results, it unveils that the electron-deficient B atom can contribute to the local electronic redistribution, leading to the anchoring preference effect of H* on Ru atoms for Ru–B bonds in Ru2B3. Thus, our work highlights a new type of cheap noble-metal-based electrocatalysts for high-efficiency HER electrocatalysis.