RuCo alloy nanoparticles embedded within N-doped porous two-dimensional carbon nanosheets:a high-performance hydrogen evolution reaction catalyst

Developing cost-effective electrocatalysts with high activity and stability especially at high current density is of great significance for the large-scale commercial application of electrochemical water splitting to hydrogen production but still remains challenging.Herein,we report an effective confinement pyrolysis strategy to fabricate embedded ruthenium-cobalt nanoclusters supported on N-doped porous two-dimensional carbon nanosheets(RuCo@CN).Markedly,the embedded structure can effectively prevent the migration,agglomeration,and leaching of nanoparticles,thus endowing the RuCo@CN catalyst with high stability.To be exact,high stability with up to 650 h can be achieved at high current density(-500 and-1000 mA·cm^(-2)).Besides,the RuCo@CN catalysts also exhibit highly reactive with low overpotentials of only 11mV at-10 mA·cm^(-2).Density functional theory calculations reveal that the introduction of cobalt reduces the decomposition barrier of H_(2)O for RuCo@CN alloy,thus promoting hydrogen evolution reaction.