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Boosting alkaline hydrogen evolution performance by constructing ultrasmall Ru clusters/Na+, K+-decorated porous carbon composites

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Abstract

The construction of efficient and durable electrocatalysts with highly dispersed metal clusters and hydrophilic surface for alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) remains a great challenge. Herein, we prepared hydrophilic nanocomposites of Ru clusters (∼ 1.30 nm) anchored on Na+, K+-decorated porous carbon (Ru/Na+, K+-PC) through hydrothermal method and subsequent annealing treatment at 500 °C. The Ru/Na+, K+-PC exhibits ultralow overpotential of 7 mV at 10 mA·cm−2, mass activity of 15.7 A·mgRu−1 at 100 mV, and long-term durability of 20,000 cycles potential cycling and 200 h chronopotentiometric measurement with a negligible decrease in activity, much superior to benchmarked commercial Pt/C. Density functional theory based calculations show that the energy barrier of H-OH bond breaking is efficiently reduced due to the presence of Na and K ions, thus favoring the Volmer step. Furthermore, the Ru/Na+, K+-PC effectively employs solar energy for obtaining H2 in both alkaline water and seawater electrolyzer. This finding provides a new strategy to construct high-performance and cost-effective alkaline HER electrocatalyst.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21571038), Education Department of Guizhou Province (No. 2021312), Foundation of Guizhou Province (No. 2019-5666), State Key Laboratory of Coal Mine Disaster Dynamics and Control (Chongqing University, No. 2011DA105287-ZR202101), Science Foundation for After graduated Students of Guizhou Province (No. YJSKYJJ2021023), State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces (Xiamen University, No. 202009), and the Open Fund of the Key Lab of Organic Optoelectronics and Molecular Engineering (Tsinghua University). We gratefully acknowledge Analytical and Testing Center of Chongqing University. We also gratefully acknowledge the computing resources provided by Hefei advanced computing center.

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  1. State-Local Joint Laboratory for Comprehensive Utilization of Biomass, Center for R&D of Fine Chemicals, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, China

    Mingxiu Duan & Qiang Yuan

  2. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China

    Tie Shu & Ke Xin Yao

  3. Multi-scale Porous Materials Center, Institute of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies & School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China

    Jingwei Li, Daliang Zhang & Ke Xin Yao

  4. College of Physics and Center of Quantum Materials and Devices, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 401331, China

    Li-Yong Gan

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  1. Mingxiu Duan
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Boosting alkaline hydrogen evolution performance by constructing ultrasmall Ru clusters/Na+, K+-decorated porous carbon composites

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Duan, M., Shu, T., Li, J. et al. Boosting alkaline hydrogen evolution performance by constructing ultrasmall Ru clusters/Na+, K+-decorated porous carbon composites. Nano Res. 16, 8836–8844 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5558-5

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