Ultrahigh Mass Activity for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction by Anchoring Platinum Single Atoms on Active {100} Facets of TiC via Cation Defect Engineering
Qinghua Dong, Sugang Ma, Jiuyi Zhu, Fen Yue, Yuqi Geng, Jie Zheng, Yu Ge, Chuanlin Fan, Huigang Zhang, Maoqiao Xiang, Qingshan Zhu
Abstract
Abstract Improving the platinum (Pt) mass activity for low‐cost electrochemical hydrogen evolution is an important and arduous task. Here, a selective etching‐reducing fluidized bed reactor technique is reported to create Ti vacancies and firmly anchor single Pt atoms on the active {100} facets of titanium carbide (TiC) to increase the Pt utilization efficiency and improve catalytic activity significantly by a synergistic effect between Ti vacancies and Pt atoms. The generated Ti vacancies are negatively charged and stabilize Pt atoms by forming covalent PtC bonds, showing excellent long‐term durability. Pt single atoms (ultralow load of 1.2 µg cm −2 ) on the defective TiC {100} show remarkable activity (24.9 mV at 10 mA cm −2 ) and a mass activity (49.69 A mg −1 ) ≈190 times that of the state‐of‐the‐art PtC catalyst and nearly double the previously reported best values. The developed cation defect engineering exhibits excellent potential for fabricating next‐generation advanced single‐atom catalysts for large‐scale hydrogen evolution at a low cost.