Abstract
The proliferation of green technologies to combat the energy crisis has fostered the demand for efficient electrocatalysts towards the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). It is a challenge to realize electrocatalysts with high activity and stability. Herein, we report a combinatorial design strategy by coupling Ru and CrN to boost the HER performance and durability, surpassing pristine Ru/NC, CrN/NC, and even commercial Pt/C. An in situ Ru–CrN decoration over N-doped carbon (Ru–CrN/NC) is achieved via one-step pyrolysis. CrN induces an electronic modulation in the hybrid that allows facile electron transfer to improve the HER activity. A drastic drop in the η10 for Ru–CrN/NC to 7 and 2 times relative to CrN/NC and Ru/NC, respectively, is observed in alkaline media. Similar observations have been made in acidic media as well. Ru–CrN/NC shows high durability in both the reaction media after 24 h of operation
