Ultrafine Pt nanoparticles embedded in defective porous carbon for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

Platinum (Pt) is the state-of-the-art electrochemical catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), but its commercial developments are restricted by scarcity and high cost. In this paper, defective porous carbon is obtained by removing the doped nitrogen atoms at high temperatures and ultrafine Pt nanoparticles were embedded in the defective porous carbon (Pt NPs/DPC) via a facile hydrothermal method . Benefiting from the synergistic effect of ultrafine Pt NPs and conductive substrate, Pt NPs/DPC catalyst exhibits high electrochemical activity with a low overpotential of 30 mV at 10 mA cm −2 and Tafel slope of 31 mV dec −1 and remarkable long-term electrochemical stability in acid solution, demonstrating HER performance superior to commercial 40 % Pt/C.