Interface Engineering with Ultralow Ruthenium Loading for Efficient Water Splitting

Abstract

Developing high-performance and cost-effective bifunctional electrocatalysts for water splitting is the key to large-scale hydrogen production. How to achieve higher performance with a lower amount of noble metal is still a major challenge. Herein, using a facile wet-chemistry strategy, we report the ultralow amount loading of ruthenium (Ru) on porous nickel foam (NF) as a highly efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for water splitting. Theoretical simulations reveal that the coupling effect of Ru and Ni can significantly reduce the d-band center of the composite. The Ru-modified NF exhibits a very high level of HER activity with only 0.3 wt% of Ru, far surpassing commercial Pt/C. It only requires an extremely low overpotential (η10) of 10 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm–2 in alkaline solution and a quite low Tafel slope of 34 mV dec–1. This catalyst also shows remarkable performance for overall water splitting with a low voltage of 1.56 V at 10 mA cm–2. These findings indicate the potential of this material in water–alkali electrolyzers, providing a new approach for fabrication of low-cost advanced electrocatalysts.

Introducing oxygen vacancies to NiFe LDH through electrochemical reduction to promote the oxygen evolution reaction

“…We prepared the NiFe LDH by the microwave method as reported in our previous work 40 ). 41 The diffraction peaks at 11.8°, 23.8°, 34.7°, and 60.3°represent the (003), ( 006), ( 012) and (110) facets of NiFe LDH (PDF#49-0188), respectively. 15,42 The SEM images of NiFe LDH (Fig.…”

Ruthenium nanoparticles integrated bimetallic metal–organic framework electrocatalysts for multifunctional electrode materials and practical water electrolysis in seawater

“…6 As a result, several approaches for generating equally distributed catalysts with diverse nanostructured topologies have been established, such as synthesizing atomically dispersed noble metal catalysts, alloying noble metals with transition metals, and enhancing metal-support connections. [7][8][9][10] Considerable efforts have been made to investigate costeffective OER, HER, and ORR electrocatalysts, and many transition-metal-based catalysts have been thoroughly investigated and synthesized. 11,12 Notably, transition metal derivatives (TMDs) have sparked the interest of researchers due to several advantages in terms of ease of synthesis, low cost, and easily adjustable structure and composition.…”

Hollow Carbon Sphere and Polyhedral Carbon Composites Supported Iron Nanoparticles as Excellent Bifunctional Electrocatalysts of Zn–Air Battery

“…Traditional commercial noble‐metal catalysts such as Pt‐based materials are good for ORR, and Ir‐ and Ru‐based materials are the most efficient catalysts for OER. [ 14,15 ] However, these noble‐metal catalysts suffer from lots of shortcomings, including high cost and scarcity, poor durability, and insufficient bifunctional activity. [ 16,17 ] Accordingly, it is imperative to find a low‐cost, resource‐rich electrocatalyst with excellent catalytic activity for both ORR and OER.…”