Significantly Stabilizing Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Induced by Nb-Doping Pt/Co(OH)2 Nanosheets

High stability and efficiency of electrocatalysts are crucial for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) toward water splitting in an alkaline media. Herein, a novel nano-Pt/Nb-doped Co(OH) 2 (Pt/Nb  Co(OH) 2 ) nanosheet is designed and synthesized using water-bath treatment and solvothermal reduction approaches. With nano-Pt uniformly anchored onto Nb  Co(OH) 2 nanosheet, the synthesized Pt/Nb  Co(OH) 2 shows outstanding electrocatalytic performances for alkaline HER, achieving a high stability for at least 33 h, a high mass activity of 0.65 mA µg −1 Pt, and a good catalytic activity with a low overpotential of 112 mV at 10 mA cm −2 . Both experimental and theoretical results prove that Nb-doping significantly optimizes the hydrogen adsorption free energy to accelerate the Heyrovsky step for HER, and boosts the adsorption of H 2 O, which further enhances the water activation. This study provides a new design methodology for the Nb-doped electrocatalysts in an alkaline HER field by facile and green way.