Electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) faces challenges in alkaline due to competitive adsorption of *OH and *H at the same active site, which hinders H2 generation. Single-atom alloys (SAAs), particularly Ni-based systems like NiPt1 SAAs, show considerable performance through dual-site mechanisms, where Ni adsorbs *OH while Pt facilitates H2 desorption. However, *OH blockage on Ni hinders *OH desorption and triggers slow water dissociation kinetics. Herein, supported NiPt1 alloy nanoclusters embedded with Ni3ZnC0.7 (Ni3ZnC0.7@NiPt1) are synthesized through pyrolysis of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8)@Ni coordination compound (ZIF-8@NCC) coupled with Pt galvanic replacement reactions. Experiments and calculations reveal that the embedded Ni3ZnC0.7 modulates electronic structure of Ni, promoting *OH desorption and enhancing water dissociation. Thus, supported Ni3ZnC0.7@NiPt1 achieves exceptional low overpotential (η10 = 23 mV) and high mass activity (MA50 = 1.67 mA·μgPt−1) in alkaline, which remarkably surpass Ni@NiPt1 (η10 = 127 mV and MA50 = 0.101 mA·μgPt−1). The corresponding alkaline anion-exchange membrane water electrolyzer (AEMWE) requires only 1.91 V at 1 A·cm−2, demonstrating industrial viability. This work provides new insights into addressing *OH blockage on SAAs catalysts in alkaline HER.
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Aggregation of polyoxometalates (POM) is largely responsible for the reduced performance of POM-based energy-storage systems. To address this challenge, here, the precise confinement of single Keggin-type POM molecule in a porous carbon (PC) of unimodal super-micropore (micro-PC) is realized. Such precise single-molecule confinement enables sufficient activity center exposure and maximum electron-transfer from micro-PC to POM, which well stabilizes the electron-accepting molecules and thoroughly activates its inherent multi-electron redox-activity. In particular, the redox-activities and electron-accepting properties of the confined POM molecule are revealed to be super-micropore pore size-dependent by experiment and spectroscopy as well as theoretical calculation. Meanwhile, the molecularly dispersed POM molecules confined steadily in the "cage" of micro-PC exhibit unprecedented large-negative-potential stability and multiple-peak redox-activity at an ultra-low loading of ~11.4 wt%. As a result, the fabricated solid-state supercapacitor achieves a remarkable areal capacitance, ultrahigh energy and power density of 443 mF cm−2, 0.12 mWh cm−2 and 21.1 mW cm−2, respectively. This work establishes a novel strategy for the precise confinement of single POM molecule, providing a versatile approach to inducing the intrinsic activity of POMs for advanced energy-storage systems.
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