Highly mass activity electrocatalysts with ultra-low Pt loading on carbon black for hydrogen evolution reaction

Pt-based nanocatalysts have remarkable prospect for industry. However, the low loading of Pt with excellent performance for efficient and stable nanocatalysts still remains highly challenging. Here, nanocatalysts with ultralow Pt content and excellent performance supported on carbon black are designed by in-situ synthesis. These ~2 nm particles uniformly and stably dispersed on carbon black due to the strong s-p-d orbital hybridizations between carbon black and Pt which suppressed the agglomeration of Pt ions. This unique structure is beneficial for the hydrogen evolution reaction. The catalysts exhibited remarkable catalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction with a potential of 100 mV at 100 mA cm-2, comparable to commercial Pt/C; and mass activity (1.61 A/mg) is four times higher than that of commercial Pt/C (0.37 A/mg). The ultralow Pt loading of 6.84wt% paves the way for the development of next generation electrocatalysts.