Local
electric field induced by the lightning-rod effect attracts
great attention for regulating the local microenvironment and electronic
properties of active sites. Nevertheless, local electric-field-assisted
applications are mainly limited to metals with strong surface plasmonic
resonance properties (e.g., Au, Ag, and Cu). Herein, we fabricate
RuCu snow-like nanosheets (SNSs) with high-curvature nanotips for
enhancing the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) and hydrogen evolution
reaction (HER). Theoretical simulations show that RuCu SNSs can induce
a strong local electric field around the sharp nanotips, which favors
the accumulation of OH– for HOR and H+ for HER. Cu incorporation can modulate the binding strength of OH*
and H*, leading to significantly enhanced HOR and HER performance.
Impressively, the mass activity of RuCu SNSs for alkaline HOR is 31.3
times higher than that of RuCu nanocrystals without sharp tips. Besides,
the required overpotential for reaching 10 mA cm–2 during HER over RuCu SNSs is 14.0 mV.