Alkaline anion-exchange-membrane water electrolyzers (AEMWEs) using earth-abundant catalysts is a promising approach for the generation of green H2 . However, the AEMWEs with alkaline electrolytes suffer from poor performance at high current density compared to proton exchange membrane electrolyzers. Here, atomically dispersed Pt-Ru dual sites co-embedded in nanoporous nickel selenides (np/Pt1 Ru1 -Ni0.85 Se) are developed by a rapid melt-quenching approach to achieve highly-efficient alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction. The np/Pt1 Ru1 -Ni0.85 Se catalyst shows ampere-level current density with a low overpotential (46 mV at 10 mA cm-2 and 225 mV at 1000 mA cm-2 ), low Tafel slope (32.4 mV dec-1 ), and excellent long-term durability, significantly outperforming the benchmark Pt/C catalyst and other advanced large-current catalysts. The remarkable HER performance of nanoporous Pt1 Ru1 -Ni0.85 Se is attributed to the strong intracrystal electronic metal-support interaction (IEMSI) between Pt-Se-Ru sites and Ni0.85 Se support which can greatly enlarge the charge redistribution density, reduce the energy barrier of water dissociation, and optimize the potential determining step. Furthermore, the assembled alkaline AEMWE with an ultralow Pt and Ru loading realizes an industrial-level current density of 1 A cm-2 at 1.84 volts with high durability.
Keywords: alkaline HER; anion exchange membrane; dual atomic sites; nanoporous; synergistic catalysis.
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