Ruthenium‐Induced Activation of Molybdenum‐Cobalt Phosphide for High‐Efficiency Water Splitting

Abstract

Advancing green hydrogen production technologies relies heavily on the development of highly efficient and durable bifunctional catalysts for overall water splitting. Herein, this study reports the ruthenium‐modified hollow cubic molybdenum‐cobalt phosphide (Ru‐MoCoP) as exceptional performance electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Theoretical calculations and experimental results indicate that the incorporation of Ru not only serves as an efficient active site, but also adjusts the electronic structure and improves the reactivity of the original sites, as well as generates more phosphorus vacancies, which improves the electrical conductivity and exposes more active sites. Benefiting from the advantages triggered by the incorporation of Ru mentioned above, the Ru‐MoCoP delivers low overpotentials of 55 and 240 mV at 10 mA cm−2 for HER and OER, respectively. Furthermore, the electrolyzer assembled with Ru‐MoCoP achieves a current density of 50 mA cm−2 at 1.6 V and can be operated stably for 150 h. Notably, the assembled two‐electrode system can be powered by a single commercial AA battery, accompanied with evident gas bubble evolution. This research proposes a promising strategy for the development of highly efficient bifunctional phosphide catalysts, aiming to achieve efficient energy conversion in a wide range of industrial applications.

Balancing the relationship between the activity and stability of anode oxide-based electrocatalysts in acid for PEMWE electrolyzers

“…103 Through the doping of foreign atoms, the relative position between the center of the d-band and the Fermi energy level can be finely adjusted, 104,105 consequently enabling the fine-tuning of adsorption energy and efficiency for intermediates. Vacancy defects, such as oxygen vacancies in oxides, serve to lower the energy band of O 2p and Fermi levels 106 (Fig. 12a and b).…”

Rapid Electronic Transport Channel of Co‐P with Mo in a Heterostructure Embedded with P, N Dual Doped Porous Carbon for Electrocatalytic Oxygen and Hydrogen Evolution

“…Porous structure of cobalt phosphate exhibits distribution of active sites, and favorable diffusion of hydroxides in an alkaline medium of OER [26] . The electronic manipulation through P‐doping in metal nanoparticles and porous carbon regulates the optimized ΔG H* for HER [27,28] . Dual doping with heteroatom forms multi‐active sites for an optimal balance of surface chemical states.…”

Enhancing acidic hydrogen evolution through pyrrolic nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide triggering two-electron oxygen reduction

“…The electrochemical water-splitting technology for hydrogen production utilizes surplus electricity to electrolyze abundant water resources, offering the advantages of high safety, environmental cleanliness, and the generation of high-purity H 2 . 6–10 Water electrolysis predominantly comprises the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction, 11,12 with the HER being an electrode reaction for generating high-purity H 2 . However, during electrolysis, the polarization phenomenon results in high overpotentials and sluggish reaction kinetics for the HER, 13–16 necessitating additional electrical energy.…”