The development of low-cost yet highly efficient catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is crucial for large-scale clean and sustainable hydrogen production from water splitting. Tuning the interfacial structure of catalyst has emerged as an effective strategy to optimize the intrinsic catalytic activity. In this study, we demonstrated the deposition of Ru nanoparticles by freshly prepared strong reductive Ti(III) oxide, resulting in Ru/reduced TiO₂ interface with oxygen vacancies. The as-prepared Ru/r-TiO₂ exhibited a superior HER performance over commercial Pt/C in alkaline media, with only a small overpotential of 15 mV required to deliver the benchmark current density of 10 mA cm⁻² and a high turnover frequency of 8.74 s⁻¹ achieved at an overpotential of 100 mV. Density functional theory calculation indicates that high electrocatalytic activity of Ru/r-TiO₂ is originated from the promotion of water dissociation and weakening OH adsorption by reduced TiO₂, which facilitate the conversion of water to H₂. This work provides an efficient strategy for the design of high-performance HER catalysts.

开发低成本但高效的析氢反应（HER）催化剂对于通过水分解进行大规模清洁和可持续的制氢至关重要。调整催化剂的界面结构已成为优化内在催化活性的有效策略。在这项研究中，我们展示了通过新制备的强还原性 Ti(III) 氧化物沉积 Ru 纳米粒子，导致 Ru/还原 TiO ₂界面与氧空位。所制备的 Ru/r-TiO ₂在碱性介质中表现出优于商业 Pt/C 的 HER 性能，仅需 15 mV 的小过电位即可提供 10 mA cm ^-2的基准电流密度和高周转频率8.74 秒^-1达到 100 mV 的过电位。密度泛函理论计算表明，Ru/r-TiO _{2 的}高电催化活性源于还原TiO ₂促进水解离和减弱OH吸附，促进水转化为H ₂。这项工作为高性能 HER 催化剂的设计提供了一种有效的策略。