Alloying Platinum Single Atoms with Nickel Iron Alloys for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Single-atom alloy catalyst has been considered an effective catalyst that maintains high catalytic activity and reduces the amounts of precious metals. However, the catalyst's slow alkaline water dissociation and deactivation during catalysis hampered their use for hydrogen production at an industrial scale. We address these challenges by developing a Pt single-atom alloy with NiFe at carbon support, which has an exceptionally high activity for alkaline hydrogen evolution. The Pt single-atom alloy with NiFe alloy decreases the binding energy of water and efficiently reduces the water dissociation energy. Furthermore, it promotes the H* conversion into H2 due to the metallic nature of the alloy. Consequently, the optimal Pt single atom alloy with NiFe at carbon support catalyst exhibits a near zero onset potential, a lower overpotential to reach a current density of -10 mAcm-2 with a high mass activity and significantly improve HER catalytic activity.