Highly Dispersed Pt on TiOx Embedded in Porous Carbon as Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

In conventionally used carbon-supported heterogeneous platinum catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), low Pt utilization efficiency and poor stability, resulting from weak interactions with the carbon supports, are crucial issues. Here, we report a novel hierarchical structure of TiOx nanoparticles embedded in porous carbon with the in situ growth of highly dispersed Pt on the TiOx surface (Pt-TiOx@C). The as-prepared Pt-TiOx@C electrocatalyst showed excellent catalytic activity during HER with an overpotential of only 10 mV when the current density reached 10 mA cm−2 and the mass activity was 9.24 A mgPt−1 at an overpotential of 30 mV in 0.5 M H2SO4 solution, thus outperforming commercial Pt/C catalysts. Furthermore, it also exhibited highly stable catalytic activity over 10,000 CV cycles of an accelerated degradation test (ADT). This high HER activity and durability could be ascribed to the highly dispersed Pt feature and the strong metal–support interaction (SMSI) between Pt and TiOx. This study also provides a simple and effective method for designing highly active and stable electrocatalysts.