Synthesis of MOF-derived Ru/N-doped porous carbon for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction

The alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) presents a critical challenge in water electrolysis due to its inherently sluggish kinetics. To address this limitation, we developed a cage-confinement strategy (CCS) to precisely anchor ultrafine ruthenium (Ru) nanoclusters on metal-organic framework (MOF)-derived nitrogen-doped porous carbon (NPC), enabling simultaneous control over electronic structure and particle size distribution. The optimized Ru@NPC catalyst demonstrates exceptional HER performance, achieving a remarkably low overpotential of 81.6 mV at 10 mA cm⁻² - a 5.3-fold improvement over the bare NPC support (436 mV). The material's superior reaction kinetics are further evidenced by its low Tafel slope of 51 mV dec⁻¹, approaching the theoretical limit for Volmer-Heyrovsky mechanisms. Combined with excellent durability, these results establish Ru@NPC as a promising noble metal-efficient electrocatalyst for sustainable hydrogen production, demonstrating the effectiveness of our CCS approach in designing high-performance catalytic architectures.