Facile synthesis of strongly coupled platinum-molybdenum/silicon carbide quantum-dots heterostructures as electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

Strongly coupled platinum-based transition-metal oxide and the development of quantum-dot structures of hybrid catalysts are cost-effective and maximize accessible active sites. However, a significant obstacle still exists for the rational proposal and simple synthesis of hybrid quantum-dot material catalysts. Herein, novel PtxMo1-xSiC quantum dots (PtxMo1-xSiC QDs) for catalyzing the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) were fabricated through a simple solution-induced impregnation method. The optimized Pt0.05Mo0.95SiC QDs catalyst only require overpotentials of 28 mV to deliver a current density of 10 mA cm−2 in acidic media, respectively. The synergistic effects of the PtxMo1-xSiC QDs networks that promote electron transfer are responsible for the outstanding HER performance. This work presents a novel method for producing an extremely effective HER catalyst for applications on large-scale.