Anti-Dissolution Tungsten Alloying Stabilizes Highly Active Platinum for Industrial-Grade Hydrogen Evolution
Chuhan Dai1,2, Yongtao Li1, Wenhao Xie2
1School of Materials Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Green Fabrication and Surface Technology of Advanced Metal Materials (Anhui University of Technology), Ministry of Education, Maanshan, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
Platinum-based alloys remain the most promising electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), yet suffer from activity-stability trade-offs, particularly in alkaline media where Pt-Ni alloys undergo continuous dissolution. Herein, we report the rational design of intermetallic Pt2W alloy nanoparticles uniformly anchored on N-doped carbon nanomeshes (N-CM), leveraging tungsten's exceptional thermodynamic stability and corrosion resistance to address this dilemma. Systematic compositional optimization reveals that Pt2W/N-CM delivers superior alkaline HER performance, achieving an ultralow overpotential of 7 mV at 10 mA cm-2 and outperforming both Pt-Ni analogues and commercial Pt/C. Critically, the catalyst exhibits unprecedented long-term durability, maintaining stable operation for 200 h at an industrial-grade high current density of 800 mA cm-2. Combined theoretical and experimental analyses elucidate that W fulfills a cooperative trifunction whereby oxophilic sites markedly lower the kinetic barrier for water dissociation while directional electron transfer downshifts the Pt d-band center to optimize hydrogen adsorption. Simultaneously, the intrinsic anti-dissolution property of W fundamentally suppresses active site degradation under harsh HER conditions, establishing a structural self-stabilization mechanism. This work demonstrates that leveraging corrosion-resistant tungsten enables a structurally self-stabilizing and highly active Pt2W electrocatalyst for industrial alkaline water electrolysis.
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