Tip-intensified engineering of interfacial microenvironment toward pH-universal hydrogen evolution reaction

Engineering a robust non-platinum electrode toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is important for water electrolysis. Here we develop a nanotip-structured electrode through a solution phase etching procedure. Based on the experimental and finite element simulation, the results show that the nanotip-structured design of electrodes cannot only lower the adhesion force of bubbles, but also induce a local-concentrated electric field that can promote the formation of Marangoni effect, and K concentrated and local acid-like microenvironment, consequently facilitating the detachment of bubbles and the HER kinetics. The electrochemical measurements and density function theory (DFT) calculation indicate that the constructed electrode exhibits a low H* binding energy and an outstanding HER performance that outperforms the commercial Pt/C in pH-universal medium. Overall, this work provides a feasible strategy for electrode design with a pH-universal feasibility by precisely constructing electrode interfaces.