Coupling interface engineering with electronic interaction toward high-efficiency H2 evolution in pH-universal electrolytes

Herein, the merits of heterojunction, CeO2, and W are employed to design and prepare the [email protected]2 heterojunction catalyst, which can accelerate water dissociation and improve the desorption of OHad, displaying efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance in pH-universal conditions. Density functional theory calculation results reveal that the electronic structure of Pt is regulated by CeO2 and W, which tunes the Pt–Had bond strength to boost HER intrinsic activity. Consequently, electrochemical results display that it has low potentials of −26, −25, and −23 mV at −10 mA cm−2 in alkaline, neutral, and acidic solutions, respectively, and it can stably cycle for 50,000 cycles. Thus, this work provides the guidance for developing high-performance Pt-based catalysts in pH-universal environments.