Reversing the charge transfer between platinum and sulfur-doped carbon support for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Metal–support interaction is of great significance for catalysis as it can induce charge transfer between metal and support, tame electronic structure of supported metals, impact adsorption energy of reaction intermediates, and eventually change the catalytic performance. Here, we report the metal size-dependent charge transfer reversal, that is, electrons transfer from platinum single atoms to sulfur-doped carbons and the carbon supports conversely donate electrons to Pt when their size is expanded to ~1.5 nm cluster. The electron-enriched Pt nanoclusters are far more active than electron-deficient Pt single atoms for catalyzing hydrogen evolution reaction, exhibiting only 11 mV overpotential at 10 mA cm−2 and a high mass activity of 26.1 A mg−1 at 20 mV, which is 38 times greater than that of commercial Pt/C. Our work manifests that the manipulation of metal size-dependent charge transfer between metal and support opens new avenues for developing high-active catalysts. The charge transfer between metal and support is significant for catalysis, but little attention has been focused on charge transfer tuned by metal size. Here, authors report a metal size-dependent reversal of charge transfer between metal and carbon support in hydrogen evolution electrocatalysts.