Modulating Dominant Facets of Pt through Multistep Selective Anchored on WC for Enhanced Hydrogen Evolution Catalysis

Facilitating the exposure of the active crystal facets on the surfaces of composite catalysts is a representative route to promote catalytic activity. Based on a tailored galvanic replacement reaction, herein, a self-assembly route is reported to prepare Pt–WC/CNT with Pt (200) preferential orientation and well-dispersed structure, which are capable of substantially boosting electrocatalysis in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Formation mechanism reveals that the (200)-dominated Pt-based catalysts form in galvanic replacement reaction through selective anchored on WC, and the multistep galvanic replacement process plays a critical role to realize the Pt (200)-dominated growth in higher Pt loading catalyst. These unique structural features endow the Pt–WC/CNT with a high turnover frequency of 94.18 H 2 ·s –1 at 100 mV overpotential, 7-fold higher than that of commercial Pt/C (13.55 H 2 ·s –1 ), ranking it among the most active catalysts. In addition, this method, which combines with gas–solid reaction and galvanic replacement reaction, paves the way to scalable synthesis as Pt facets-controllable composite catalysts to challenge commercial Pt/C.