Hydrogen as an environmentally friendly energy vector is constantly gaining importance, and there is a high interest in finding both cost-effective and durable materials as electrocatalysts i.e. to reduce the use of platinum. We use electrochemical methods to produce advanced material architectures with high surface-area-to-volume-ratios and compositions with reduced amounts of noble metals. These materials are tested as electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and, more recently, implemented in proton exchange membrane fuel cells.