Highly dispersed Pt anchored on hollow carbon nanobowls: negative curvature enhances electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Abstract

While commercial Pt/C remains the benchmark electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) due to the optimal hydrogen adsorption free energy of Pt, its bulk structure extensively embeds active sites, limiting practical utilization. Here, we designed hollow carbon nanobowls with precisely controlled negative curvature to anchor Pt as coexisting nanoclusters and single atoms (0.6 wt% loading) (denoted as HCB@Pt). The synergistic effect of such clusters and single atoms not only enhances the activity of the catalyst for the HER (11 mV@10 mA cm⁻²) but also improves its stability, yielding activity and stability levels far exceeding that of commercial Pt/C and most reported Pt-based catalysts. In proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) applications, HCB@Pt demonstrates excellent stability over 100 h with a low energy demand (1.66 V@200 mA cm⁻²).