Multi-site Relay HER Catalyst

Dedicated active sites

Fe7C3 sites accelerate water dissociation while Ru sites facilitate hydrogen evolution, with interfacial charge redistribution optimizing each site.

You, Chaoyu · Wang, Xiaojun · Qu, Lijun · Yang, Lei · Jiao, Lifang

Angewandte Chemie - International Edition 2025

Specifications

Operation time

{'zh': '300', 'en': '300'} h

Advantages

Faster water dissociation

Electron-deficient Fe7C3 sites accelerate water dissociation, and the resulting protons rapidly spill over to Ru sites for hydrogen evolution.

Synergistic activity optimization

Twin-boundary defects and charge redistribution induced by the heterointerface optimize the adsorption energy and enhance the intrinsic activity of each functional site.

Outperforms commercial Pt/C

This catalyst exhibits enhanced HER performance that is superior to commercial Pt/C, offering a possible substitute for Pt.

Applications

• Alkaline water electrolysis：Replace Pt/C with a low-Ru catalyst to cut costs in alkaline water electrolysis.
• AEM electrolyzers：Supply an efficient, long-lived HER cathode for AEM electrolyzers.
• Electrocatalytic HER：Lower the HER overpotential in alkaline media through site-specific relay catalysis.
• Non-noble metal cocatalysts：Use Fe7C3 as a cocatalyst to activate water and reduce precious Ru loading.