Fig. 1: Schematic illustration of the hydrogen spillover on two-type catalyst systems for HER in acidic media.

a The conventional hydrogen spillover-based binary-component catalyst (HSBCC) system by coupling hydrogen-enriched Pt-based nanocrystals with hydrogen-deficient component. Red balls represent Pt atoms and blue and gray balls represent compounds. b Hydrogen spillover-based single-component catalyst (HSSCC) system with atomic-level multiple catalytic sites. Red, blue and gray balls represent strong H adsorption, thermoneutral H adsorption and facile H2 desorption sites, respectively.