Constructing tungsten doping RuP₂@Carbon dots for enhanced hydrogen evolution reaction in acidic and alkaline media

Hydrogen, a carbon-neutral and renewable energy resource, is alternative to the diminishing conventional fossil fuels energy. However, developing pollution-free electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is desirable but remains a challenge. Herein, a novel nanohybrid consisting of tungsten doped RuP2 nanoparticles (NPs) anchored on the carbon dots (W-0.15-RuP2@CDs(1.0)) has been developed for wide-pH HER. Due to the strong coordination interactions between the metal ions and the surface functional groups of CDs, the dispersion improvement of W doping RuP2 NPs is achieved. Meanwhile, CDs form the Nrich self-crosslinking structures that accelerates electron transfer during the reaction. Moreover, the W dopant optimizes the electronic configuration, leading to faster proton shift and hydrogen diffusion. Beneficially, the optimized W-0.15-RuP2@CDs(1.0) achieves 10 mA cm at low overpotentials of 19 mV (0.5 M H2SO4) and 28 mV (1.0 M KOH) with an excellent stability. This study provides an innovative idea to design the high-performance non-platinum catalysts. (c) 2023 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.