Highly active, stable, and cheap Pt‐free catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are facing increasing demand as a result of their potential use in future energy‐conversion systems. However, the development of HER electrocatalysts with Pt‐like or even superior activity, in particular ones that can function under alkaline conditions, remains a significant challenge. Here, the synthesis of a novel carbon‐loaded ruthenium nanoparticle electrocatalyst (Ru@CQDs) for the HER, using carbon quantum dots (CQDs), is reported. Electrochemical tests reveal that, even under extremely alkaline conditions (1 m KOH), the as‐formed Ru@CQDs exhibits excellent catalytic behavior with an onset overpotential of 0 mV, a Tafel slope of 47 mV decade⁻¹, and good durability. Most importantly, it only requires an overpotential of 10 mV to achieve the current density of 10 mA cm⁻². Such catalytic characteristics are superior to the current commercial Pt/C and most noble metals, non‐noble metals, and nonmetallic catalysts under basic conditions. These findings open a new field for the application of CQDs and add to the growing family of metal@CQDs with high HER performance.

中文翻译：

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碳量子点负载的钌纳米粒子作为在碱性介质中产氢的高效电催化剂

用于氢析出反应（HER）的高活性，稳定和廉价的无Pt催化剂因其在未来的能量转换系统中的潜在用途而面临着日益增长的需求。但是，开发具有类似Pt甚至更高活性的HER电催化剂，特别是在碱性条件下可以发挥功能的HER电催化剂，仍然是一个巨大的挑战。在此，报道了使用碳量子点（CQD）合成用于HER的新型碳载钌纳米粒子电催化剂（Ru @ CQDs）。电化学测试表明，即使在极端碱性条件下（1 m KOH），形成的Ru @ CQDs仍具有出色的催化性能，起始过电势为0 mV，Tafel斜率为47 mV十进制^-1，耐久性好。最重要的是，它仅需要10 mV的过电位即可达到10 mA cm ^-2的电流密度。在基本条件下，这种催化特性优于目前的市售Pt / C和大多数贵金属，非贵金属和非金属催化剂。这些发现为CQD的应用开辟了一个新领域，并增加了具有较高HER性能的金属@CQD系列。