Ion-Assisted Preparation of Bimetallic Porous Nanodendrites for Active and Stable Water Electrolysis

Delicate electrochemical active surface area (ECSA) engineering over the exposed catalytic interface and surface topology of platinum-based nanomaterial represents an effective pathway to boost its catalytic properties toward the clean energy conversion system. Here, for the first time, the facial and universal production of dendritic Pt-based nanoalloys (Pt-Ni, Co, Fe) with highly porous feature via a novel Zn²⁺ -mediated solution approach is demonstrated. In the presence of Zn²⁺ during synthesis, the competition of different galvanic replacement reactions and consequently generated "branch-to-branch" growth mode are believed to play key roles for the in situ fabrication of such unique nanostructure. Due to the fully exposed active sites and ligand effect-induced electronic optimization, electrochemical hydrogen evolution in alkaline media on these catalysts exhibit dramatic activity enhancement, delivering a current density of 30.6 mA cm^-2 at a 70 mV overpotential for the Pt₃ Ni nanodendrites and over 7.4 times higher than that of commercial Pt/C. This work highlights a general and powerful ion-assisted strategy for exploiting dendritic Pt-based nanostructures with efficient activities for water electrolysis.