Ni<sub>0.85</sub>Se Inducing Strong Metal–Support\nInteraction Promotes Alkaline Hydrogen Electrooxidation on Ru

Strong metal–support interaction (SMSI) is widely\nrecognized\nas an effective strategy for designing high-performance electrocatalysts\nbut suffers from a loss in the number of active sites during the high-temperature\nprocess. Herein, a Ru-catalyst supported on Ni<sub>0.85</sub>Se nanosheets\nhas been fabricated through a facile microwave-assisted synthesis.\nSpectral characterizations and theoretical calculations confirm that\nthe SMSI is formed under mild conditions at the metal–support\ninterfaces, resulting in well-regulated electronic structures of the\nactive Ru species and a downshifted d-band center. It significantly\nweakens the binding strength to the oxygenated species, which alleviates\nthe competitive adsorption of H<sub>ad</sub> and OH<sub>ad</sub> on\nRu surfaces and hence increases the tolerance to form the OH<sub>ad</sub>-monolayer adsorbed (poisoned) Ru surfaces. As a result, the obtained\ncatalyst exhibits a 7-fold enhanced mass activity compared to the\nconventional carbon black supported Ru as well as the enlarged effective\npotential window toward the alkaline hydrogen oxidation reaction.\nThis work provides a facile strategy to construct SMSI under mild\nconditions for the design of high-performance electrocatalysts and\ncan be expanded to other metal/metalloid compounds.