Adsorption-low temperature pyrolysis of dodecacarbonyltriruthenium leads to the formation of small Ru NPs on carbon toward effective hydrogen evolution.
The
synthesis of ruthenium nanoclusters (NCs) is crucially important
but challenging for hydrogen production. By taking advantage of confinement
effect of nanopores in 3D porous carbon and urea as nitrogen source,
we developed a straightforward method for preparation of uniform Ru
NCs and simultaneous nitriding of the carbon scaffolds (Ru/3DNPC).
The resulting Ru/3DNPC-500 had a measured overpotential of 15 mV at
10 mA cm–2 toward hydrogen evolution reaction as
well as very high turnover frequency (584 mol of H2 (mol of Ru min)−1) for hydrolytic decomposition
of ammonia–borane, outperforming many previously reported Ru-based
catalysts. Ru NCs confined in 3DNPC substrate can supply numerous
catalytically active sites for the reactions, thereby leading to high
catalytic activity. The present synthetic strategy could open a new
direction for preparing metal NCs catalysts.
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