Ru branched nanostructure on porous carbon nanosheet for superior hydrogen evolution over a wide pH range

Key Words:HIGHLY EFFICIENT; ELECTROCATALYST; COMPOSITE; PHOSPHIDE; NITROGEN; CATHODE; NANOPARTICLES; NANOCLUSTERS; PERFORMANCE; CATALYSTS

Abstract:Water-electrolytic hydrogen production has attracted extensive attention due to it can fully utilize re-newable energy sources and residual secondary energy, while the sluggish kinetics reaction rate seriously hinders the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) progress. Herein, we reported a novel and simple pre-cipitation-calcination method for the synthesis of Ru branched nanostructures on porous N-doping carbon nanosheets (Ru BCNNs/PNC NNSs) with rough surface and step and edge atoms. The overpotentials for Ru BCNNs/PNC NNSs are 33.4 mV, 81.3 mV, and 99.9 mV in acidic, alkaline, and neutral media, respectively, to achieve the current density of 10 mA cm-2, indicating the superior HER performance over a wide pH range due to the unique rough surfaces and abundant of steps and edges atoms. Meanwhile, the Tafel slopes are 21.7 mV dec-1, 111.1 mV dec-1, and 104.7 mV dec-1 for Ru BCNNs/PNC NNSs in 1.0 M HClO4, 1.0 M KOH, and 1.0 M phosphate buffer solution (PBS, pH=7.0), respectively, much lower than that of commercial Pt/C catalysts with mass loading of 10 % from Macklin Inc. (Pt/C-MK). Furthermore, due to the advantages of the strong interface binding energy between Ru and N-C, the Ru BCNNs/PNC NNSs show outstanding durability for HER not only in mild conditions but also in harsh conditions, outperforming most Ru-based electro-catalysts reported previously. (c) 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Volume:947

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