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The state-of-the-art alkaline hydrogen evolution catalyst of united ruthenium single atoms and small ruthenium nanoparticles has sparked considerable research interest. However, it remains a serious problem that hydrogen evolution primarily proceeds on the less active ruthenium single atoms instead of the more efficient small ruthenium nanoparticles in the catalyst, hence largely falling short of its full activity potential. Here, we report that by combining highly oxophilic cerium single atoms and fully-exposed ruthenium nanoclusters on a nitrogen functionalized carbon support, the alkaline hydrogen evolution centers are facilely reversed to the more active ruthenium nanoclusters driven by the strong oxophilicity of cerium, which significantly improves the hydrogen evolution activity of the catalyst with its mass activity up to −10.1 A mg−1 at −0.05 V. This finding is expected to shed new light on developing more efficient alkaline hydrogen evolution catalyst by rational regulation of the active centers for hydrogen evolution. The Ru single atom-nanocluster alkaline hydrogen evolution catalyst suffers from that hydrogen forms on its less active single atom side. Here, the authors report that oxophilic Ce single atom can reverse the hydrogen formation site to more active Ru nanocluster, enabling enhanced hydrogen evolution capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the surface inhomogeneity of the solid supports, direct growth of uniform bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) with controllable structure and size thereon is particularly challenging. Herein, a surface‐confinement strategy is reported to directly prepare ultrafine bimetallic PtM NPs (MFe, Cu, and Co) with structure of core‐shell or intermetallic compounds on an N functionalized carbon support (NC). It is found that the N species of NC support can atomically disperse metal cations of precursors, which largely renders uniform nucleation and growth of bimetallic NPs and fine structure modulation of them. In another regard, metal transfer is confined to a narrow region on NC via N‐mediation, hence greatly favoring localized particle growth and formation of ultrafine bimetallic NPs. Remarkably, the ultrafine 3.1 ± 0.7 nm intermetallic Pt3Fe NPs on NC displayed excellent catalytic activity and durability toward electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, designing new catalysts based on topological quantum materials has attracted much research interest. Here, we have explored WTe 2 , a type-II Weyl semimetal, as an effective electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). New nanostructure am -WPO@WTe 2 has been constructed based on WTe 2 , in which the crystalline P-doped WTe 2 core is covered by amorphous phosphate species. Due to the unique core-shell structure, the HER catalytic performance of am -WPO@WTe 2 has been greatly enhanced, delivering a low overpotential of 220 mV and 280 mV at the current density of 10 mA/cm2 in acidic and alkaline electrolytes, respectively, with outstanding durability. The improved HER electrocatalytic performance could be attributed to the abundant active sites provided by the amorphous phosphate on the surface of the catalyst and the enhanced electron transfer due to the crystalline P-doped WTe 2 core. This strategy of surface modification of Weyl semimetal may open new opportunities in utilizing topological quantum materials for application in catalysis. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]