Highly Dispersed Pt Nanoparticles Embedded in N-Doped Porous Carbon for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution.

A novel and facile strategy is presented to synthesize highly dispersed Pt nanoparticles embedded in N-doped porous carbon (Pt@NPC) via carbonization of Zn-containing metal-organic frameworks and chemical replacement of Zn with Pt. The as-prepared Pt@NPC exhibits superior activity and durability towards hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in comparison with commercial Pt/C catalyst. The excellent HER performance of Pt@NPC can be ascribed to the combined features of catalyst and support material, including high dispersion and ultrathin particle size of Pt, high surface area and nitrogen doping of carbon support, and the strong interaction between metal and support.