Engineering multi-component selenide heterostructures with interfacial electronic interaction for efficient and stable acidic hydrogen evolution reaction electrocatalysis

Abstract

A multi-component Ru–CoSe₂/MoSe₂@MXene heterostructure is developed to enhance acidic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) via multi-interface electronic regulation. The CoSe2/MoSe2 heterointerface may induce directional electron transfer, while Ru doping is suggested to modulate local electronic states, collectively contributing to optimized hydrogen adsorption behavior (ΔGH*). MXene serves as a conductive scaffold to accelerate charge transport and stabilize the catalyst architecture. As a result, the catalyst achieves a low overpotential of 64 mV at 10 mA cm-2 and a Tafel slope of 48.98 mV dec-1 in 0.5 M H₂SO₄. Notably, the catalyst also exhibits improved durability, sustaining stable operation over 120 h by i-t test. The enhanced performance originates from synergistic interfacial electronic coupling, which improves intrinsic activity and charge transfer kinetics. This work highlights an effective strategy for designing high-performance transition metal selenide electrocatalysts.