Finding highly active and low-cost catalysts is a crucial endeavour to harvest clean hydrogen via electrochemical water splitting. Currently, the best catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction is based on metallic platinum whose high price severely restricts large-scale application. Here we report a silver catalyst with superior activity and durability in an acid medium that outperforms commercial platinum on carbon, especially under high applied voltages. We adopt a physical technique—laser ablation in liquid—to generate a high density of stacking faults in silver nanoparticles. We find that the stacking faults can cause a low coordination number and high tensile strain, which jointly improve the adsorption energy and transform the non-active silver into a highly active catalyst. In light of the high activity, conductivity, durability and low price, the silver catalyst can serve as a promising alternative to commercial platinum on carbon for industrial application.

寻找高活性和低成本的催化剂是通过电化学水分解来收集清洁氢气的关键工作。当前，用于氢释放反应的最佳催化剂是基于金属铂，其高昂的价格严重限制了其大规模应用。在这里，我们报告了一种在酸性介质中具有优异活性和耐久性的银催化剂，其性能优于市售的碳载铂，尤其是在高施加电压下。我们采用一种物理技术-液体中的激光烧蚀-在银纳米颗粒中产生高密度的堆垛层错。我们发现堆垛层错会导致低配位数和高拉伸应变，共同提高吸附能并将非活性银转化为高活性催化剂。鉴于其高活性，导电性，