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Recently, topological quantum materials have emerged as a promisingelectrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, most of theirperformance largely lags behind noble metals such as benchmark platinum (Pt).In this work, a Pd(20nm)/SnTe(70nm) heterostructure, fabricated by molecularbeam epitaxy and electron beam evaporation, is found to display much higherelectrocatalytic activity than that of a pure Pd(20nm) thin film and evenhigher than that of a commercial Pt foil. This heterostructure adopts anextracted turnover frequency value more than two times higher than that of thePd(20nm) thin film at a potential of 0.2 V, indicating a much higher intrinsicactivity per Pd site. Density functional theory calculations show that theconventional d-band theory, which works well for many transition metalheterostructures, cannot explain the enhancement of electrocatalyticperformance. Instead, we found that the topological surface states (TSSs) ofthe SnTe (001) underlayer play a key role; electrons transfer from both the Pdsurface and the adsorbed H atoms to the TSSs of SnTe (001), resulting in weakerPd-H binding strength and more favorable hydrogen adsorption free energies. Ourwork demonstrates for the first time that a metal/topological quantum materialheterostructure could be a prominent catalyst to enjoy HER activityoutperforming that of a commercial Pt foil and offers a promising direction tooptimize the performance of electrocatalysts based on topological quantummaterials.

Highly active hydrogen evolution facilitated by topological surface states on a Pd/SnTe metal/topological crystalline insulator heterostructure