Stable p-block metals electronic perturbation in PtM@CNT (M=Ga, In, Pb and Bi) for acidic seawater hydrogen production at commercial current densities

Achieving acidic seawater hydrogen production under commercial current densities remains a challenge. We present here a novel strategy through strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) and Pt-p-block alloys (PtM@CNT, M = Ga, In, Pb, and Bi) to construct a stable electronic perturbation and achieve acidic seawater hydrogen evolution performance at commercial current densities for the first time. SMSI stabilizes electronic perturbation and promotes durability up to 360 h. The optimized Pt61Ga39 @CNT exhibits an overpotential of 18 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in 0.5 M H2SO4 and maintains 360 h stability at 500 mA cm−2 in acidic seawater. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation reveals that the optimized d-band center of Pt and ΔGH* increase the catalytic activity, and the higher vacancy formation energy enhances the durability. Overall, this discovery not only first achieves stable acidic seawater hydrogen production under commercial current densities, but also opens a new opportunity to explore catalytic applications of p-block alloys and SMSI stabilized electronic perturbation.