Single-site Pt-doped RuO ₂ hollow nanospheres with interstitial C for high-performance acidic overall water splitting

Abstract

Realizing stable and efficient overall water splitting is highly desirable for sustainable and efficient hydrogen production yet challenging because of the rapid deactivation of electrocatalysts during the acidic oxygen evolution process. Here, we report that the single-site Pt-doped RuO 2 hollow nanospheres (SS Pt-RuO 2 HNSs) with interstitial C can serve as highly active and stable electrocatalysts for overall water splitting in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 . The performance toward overall water splitting have surpassed most of the reported catalysts. Impressively, the SS Pt-RuO 2 HNSs exhibit promising stability in polymer electrolyte membrane electrolyzer at 100 mA cm −2 during continuous operation for 100 hours. Detailed experiments reveal that the interstitial C can elongate Ru-O and Pt-O bonds, and the presence of SS Pt can readily vary the electronic properties of RuO 2 and improve the OER activity by reducing the energy barriers and enhancing the dissociation energy of * O species.

Robust Th-MOF-Supported Semirigid Single-Metal-Site Catalyst for an Efficient Acidic Oxygen Evolution Reaction

“…The electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a crucial electrochemical process in energy conversion and storage devices, such as an overall water electrolyzer. − The OER was generally operated under three medium: acidic, neutral, and alkaline electrolytes. Among them, both neutral and alkaline water electrolyzer are limited by the electrolyte conductivity, thus just giving a weak current density of less than 0.5 A cm –2 ; by contrast, acidic media in a proton exchange membrane electrolyzer would enable a high current density up to 3 A cm –2 , benefiting to the outcome of high-pressure H 2 (10 MPa) .…”

Double functionalization of Mo 2 C and NiMn‐LDH assembling g‐C 3 N 4 as efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts for selective electrocatalytic reactions and overall water splitting

“…For example, Zheng et al designed Pt/LiCoO 2 composite materials with transferable active sites for overall water splitting applications, and the unique structure of heterogeneous interfaces facilitated the adsorption and desorption of reactants 15 . In addition, Wang et al reported that Pt‐doped RuO 2 hollow nanospheres improved the electronic properties of RuO 2 through Pt, thereby achieving the effect of reduced the energy barrier and rapid dissociation of intermediate *O species 16 . However, the mixing of these two materials is not satisfactory due to the poor compatibility 17 .…”

“…15 In addition, Wang et al reported that Ptdoped RuO 2 hollow nanospheres improved the electronic properties of RuO 2 through Pt, thereby achieving the effect of reduced the energy barrier and rapid dissociation of intermediate *O species. 16 However, the mixing of these two materials is not satisfactory due to the poor compatibility. 17 In addition, the high price of precious metals restricts their large-scale use.…”

Developments and Perspectives on Robust Nano‐ and Microstructured Binder‐Free Electrodes for Bifunctional Water Electrolysis and Beyond

“…[66] In addition, several nonprecious 1D, 2D, and 3D nano-and microstructured powder catalysts such as MoS 2 , WS 2 , Ni 3 S 2 , NiCo 2 S 4 are also of interest for the HER and OER reactions. [54,[67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74] However, for commercial purposes and practical applica-…”