Acetate promotes the formation of NiRu/NiO towards efficient hydrogen evolution.

The introduction of acetate in the precursor of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) turns the final product from MOFs to NiRu/Ni(OH) 2 . Followed by annealing treatment, the obtained NiRu/NiO catalyst exhibits high hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity with a low overpotential (18 mV at 10 mA cm -2 ), and a small Tafel slope of 43.3 mV dec -1 in alkaline electrolyte.