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The insufficient availability and activity of interfacial water remain a major challenge for alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Here, we propose an "on-site disruption and near-site compensation" strategy to reform the interfacial water hydrogen bonding network via deliberate cation penetration and catalyst support engineering. This concept is validated using tip-like bimetallic RuNi nanoalloys planted on super-hydrophilic and high-curvature carbon nanocages (RuNi/NC). Theoretical simulations suggest that tip-induced localized concentration of hydrated K+ facilitates optimization of interfacial water dynamics and intermediate adsorption. In situ synchrotron X-ray spectroscopy endorses an H* spillover-bridged Volmer‒Tafel mechanism synergistically relayed between Ru and Ni. Consequently, RuNi/NC exhibits low overpotential of 12 mV and high durability of 1600 h at 10 mA cm‒2 for alkaline HER, and demonstrates high performance in both water electrolysis and chlor-alkali electrolysis. This strategy offers a microscopic perspective on catalyst design for manipulation of the local interfacial water structure toward enhanced HER kinetics. A RuNi/NC catalyst with optimized interfacial water dynamics for alkaline H2 evolution is reported. The designed strategy shows enhanced catalytic activity by achieving 12 mV overpotential at 10 mA cm‒2 and 13.6-fold higher mass activity than Pt/C.
Zhang et al. (Wed,) studied this question.