Nanostructured Pine-Like Platinum on Self-Supported Substrates for Robust Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Sustainable electrocatalytic hydrogen production is a vital method for producing clean energy. However, the current platinum catalysts are costly and complicated to prepare with low catalytic activity. To obtain efficient catalysts, a facile method with a rational electrode design is essential to improve platinum activity and stability, facilitating the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, we fabricated a self-supported HER composite electrode with abundant platinum activity sites by a simple metal–organic chemical vapor deposition, and nanostructured pine-like platinum was supported on carbon cloth (Pt/CC). Benefiting from the nanostructured pine-like platinum geometry, fast charge transfer, and good structure stability, this Pt/CC composite electrode exhibited excellent HER electrocatalytic activity. For HER, this electrode achieved a low overpotential of only 17.6 mV at 10 mA cm –2 in 1 M KOH. Moreover, Pt/CC exhibits long-term electrochemical durability, maintaining its catalytic activity for more than 30 h. What is more, this strategy can also be used on other self-supported substrates, e.g., nickel foam, to achieve high electrocatalytic activity. Thus, this work provides a simple and versatile method for the preparation of efficient HER catalysts.