RuCo alloy nanoparticles embedded within N-doped porous two-dimensional carbon nanosheets: a high-performance hydrogen evolution reaction catalyst

Developing cost-effective electrocatalysts with high activity and stability especially at high current density is of great significance for the large-scale commercial application of electrochemical water splitting to hydrogen production but still remains challenging. Herein, we report an effective confinement pyrolysis strategy to fabricate embedded ruthenium–cobalt nanoclusters supported on N-doped porous two-dimensional carbon nanosheets (RuCo@CN). Markedly, the embedded structure can effectively prevent the migration, agglomeration, and leaching of nanoparticles, thus endowing the RuCo@CN catalyst with high stability. To be exact, high stability with up to 650 h can be achieved at high current density (− 500 and − 1000 mA·cm⁻²). Besides, the RuCo@CN catalysts also exhibit highly reactive with low overpotentials of only 11 mV at − 10 mA·cm⁻². Density functional theory calculations reveal that the introduction of cobalt reduces the decomposition barrier of H₂O for RuCo@CN alloy, thus promoting hydrogen evolution reaction.