▎ 摘　　要

The development of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline electrolyte is highly desirable but is hindered by sluggish water dissociation and the high cost of Pt-based catalysts. In this study, a facile pyrolyzation method is proposed for synthesizing the Ru nanoclusters (NCs) anchored on B/N-doped graphene (BNG) (denoted as Ru NCs/BNG). During the pyrolyzation, boron was doped into graphene and facilitated the formation of ultra small Ru NCs with a diameter of 0.5-1 nm. The electronic interaction between B and Ru NCs accelerated the cleavage of H-OH, altering the HER mechanism and lowering the activation energy of H-2 formation, endowing Ru NCs/BNG with excellent alkaline HER activity, even surpassing that of Pt/C. This study reveals the importance of water dissociation barriers for alkaline HER activity and provides a new strategy for improving the HER catalytic activity.