Highly catalytic active PtNiCu nanochains for hydrogen evolution reaction

Efficient and low-cost electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction are key issues for sustainable energy technologies such as solar fuel synthesis and fuel cells. Here we report that trimetallic PtNiCu nanochains can function as efficient hydrogen evolution reactions (HER) electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution. In acidic media, the nanostructure produces a current density of 200 mA cm(-2) at the overpotential of 0.075 V, which is almost 5 times more electrocatalytically active than the state-of-the-art Pt catalysts on the basis of equivalent Pt mass and is the best among the reported Pt-based materials for HER. Electrochemical and structure characterization studies indicate that the composition-dependent high hydrogen evolution activity is resulted from both the synergistic capabilities of the metal atoms and the abundance of clean active facets on the edge sites. Our findings suggest that controlling the catalytic reaction via well-defined pathways on the multi-metallic alloys provides a great opportunity to improve their catalytic properties for hydrogen evolution reactions. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.