Water electrolysis powered by renewable electric energy is a promising technology for green hydrogen production without carbon emissions, while highly efficient and cost-effective electrocatalysts with long durability are urgently needed. Here, we demonstrate oxygen-coordinated single-atom iron sites (Fe–O4) decorated carbon nanotubes with abundant vacancies as the substrate for stabilizing Ru clusters (CNT–V–Fe–Ru). The catalyst shows high performance for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in both acidic and alkaline media, respectively. The HER kinetics analysis demonstrates that the defective substrate with single-atomic sites could significantly improve the intrinsic activity of Ru species. Theoretical calculations also support the superior HER behavior of CNT–V–Fe–Ru with fundamental insights into metal–substrate interactions. The present study highlights a unique feature of single-atom catalysts for serving as advanced supporting materials, which offers tremendous opportunities to adequately regulate electronic structures of metal–substrate interfaces at the atomic level.

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Replacing oxygen evolution half-reaction with sulfion oxidation reaction (SOR) possessing ultra-low theoretical oxidation potential and designing efficient SOR catalysts are promising strategies to decrease the energy consumption of electrochemical hydrogen...

It is important for the efficient and low-cost utilization of the clean energies to prepare robust catalytic electrodes for oxygen evolution reaction (OER, the key half-reaction in new energy conversion...

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