Synergistic High Entropy and Inductive Effects in Aerogels Accelerate pH-Universal Hydrogen Evolution

Abstract

The development of electrocatalysts that function efficiently across the full pH range remains a significant challenge for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, this study reports a class of high-entropy aerogel alloys with remarkable pH-universal HER performance. The excellent electrocatalytic activity arises from the synergistic contributions of three key features: (i) a highly porous architecture that exposes abundant active sites; (ii) high-entropy effects that promote diverse catalytic sites; and (iii) strong inductive effects that optimize hydrogen adsorption/desorption and enhance water activation at active sites. Electrochemical measurements reveal that the best-performing X-La (X = PtPdRuOs) aerogel achieves low overpotentials of 2.3, 28.8, and 25.3 mV at 10 mA cm-2 in 1.0 m HClO4, PBS, and KOH, respectively. This study presents a promising design strategy for developing HER catalysts with robust activity across diverse pH environments.