Paired Ru‒O‒Mo ensemble for efficient and stable alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction

Huang Jing Wei Li, Kang Liu, Junwei Fu, Kejun Chen, Kexin Yang, Yiyang Lin, Baopeng Yang, Qiyou Wang, Hao Pan, Zhoujun Cai, Hongmei Li, Maoqi Cao, Junhua Hu, Ying Rui Lu, Ting Shan Chan, Emiliano Cortés, Andrea Fratalocchi, Min Liu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

113 Scopus citations

Abstract

Electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline media is a promising electrochemical energy conversion strategy. Ruthenium (Ru) is an efficient catalyst with a desirable cost for HER, however, the sluggish H2O dissociation process, due to the low H2O adsorption on its surface, currently hampers the performances of this catalyst in alkaline HER. Herein, we demonstrate that the H2O adsorption improves significantly by the construction of Ru–O–Mo sites. We prepared Ru/MoO2 catalysts with Ru–O–Mo sites through a facile thermal treatment process and assessed the creation of Ru–O–Mo interfaces by transmission electron microscope (TEM) and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS). By using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and H2O adsorption tests, we proved Ru–O–Mo sites have tenfold stronger H2O adsorption ability than that of Ru catalyst. The catalysts with Ru–O–Mo sites exhibited a state-of-the-art overpotential of 16 mV at 10 mA cm–2 in 1 M KOH electrolyte, demonstrating a threefold reduction than the previous bests of Ru (59 mV) and commercial Pt (31 mV) catalysts. We proved the stability of these performances over 40 h without decline. These results could open a new path for designing efficient and stable catalysts.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)105767
JournalNano Energy
Volume82
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 18 2021

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Paired Ru‒O‒Mo ensemble for efficient and stable alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this