Synergistically interfacing CoRu alloy with W-doped CoO for highly efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen production

Constructing innovative heterostructured electrocatalysts with robust alloy-oxide interfaces are essential for hydrogen production. In this work, a strongly and abundantly coupled interfacial electrocatalyst comprising of CoRu nanoalloys anchored on W-CoO nanosheet (CoRu/W-CoO/NF) was synthesized by Co-MOF template conversion and hydrogen treatment methods. The strongly coupled interface between CoRu alloy particles and W-CoO nanosheets efficiently induce a charge redistribution at the interface which can modulate the electronic structure and optimize the adsorption of hydrogen intermediate, thereby significantly enhancing the HER activity. The obtained CoRu/W-CoO electrocatalyst exhibited excellent hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalytic performance with an overpotential of 31 mV at 10 mA cm –2 and excellent catalytic durability for 50 h. Moreover, the voltage of the two-electrode system assembled with CoRu/W-CoO and NiFe-LDH at a current density of 10 mA cm –2 is only 1.51 V, which is almost comparable to the assembled Pt/C||RuO 2 . This work paves the path for integrating metal alloys with W-doped transition metal oxide electrocatalysts for efficient hydrogen production.