Atomic-scale Pt clusters decorated on porous α-Ni(OH)2 nanowires as highly efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

The synthesis of atomic-scale metal catalysts is a promising but very challenging project. In this work, we successfully fabricated a hybrid catalyst of Ptc/Ni(OH)2 with atomic-scale Pt clusters uniformly decorated on porous Ni(OH)2 nanowires (NWs) via a facile room-temperature synthesis strategy. The as-obtained Ptc/Ni(OH)2 catalyst exhibits highly efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance under basic conditions. In 0.1 mol L−1 KOH, the Ptc/Ni(OH)2 has an onset overpotential of ~0 mV vs. RHE, and a significantly low overpotential of 32 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, lower than that of the commercial 20% Pt/C (58 mV). The mass current density data illustrated that the Ptc/Ni(OH)2 reached a high current density of 6.34 Amg Pt −1 at an overpotential of 50 mV, which was approximately 28 times higher than that of the commercial Pt/C (0.223 A mg Pt −1 ) at the same overpotential, proving the high-efficiency electrocatalytic activity of the as-obtained Ptc/Ni(OH)2 for HER under alkaline conditions.