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Ultrasmall Ru/Cu‐doped RuO 2 Complex Embedded in Amorphous Carbon Skeleton as Highly Active Bifunctional Electrocatalysts for Overall Water Splitting
Author(s) -
Yang Kang,
Xu Pengping,
Lin Zhiyu,
Yang Yang,
Jiang Peng,
Wang Changlai,
Liu Shuai,
Gong Shipeng,
Hu Lin,
Chen Qianwang
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201803009
Subject(s) - oxygen evolution , water splitting , bifunctional , electrocatalyst , electrolysis of water , materials science , catalysis , nanoparticle , amorphous solid , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , electrolyte , inorganic chemistry , electrolysis , chemistry , electrochemistry , crystallography , electrode , organic chemistry , photocatalysis , engineering
Developing highly active electrocatalysts with superior durability for both the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in the same electrolyte is a grand challenge to realize the practical application of electrolysis water for producing hydrogen. In this work, an ultrasmall Ru/Cu‐doped RuO 2 complex embedded in an amorphous carbon skeleton is synthesized, through thermolysis of Ru‐modified Cu‐1,3,5‐benzenetricarboxylic acid (BTC), as a highly efficient bifunctional catalyst for overall water splitting electrocatalysis. The ultrasmall Ru nanoparticles in the complex expose more activity sites for hydrogen evolution and outperform the commercial Pt/C. Meanwhile, the ultrasmall RuO 2 nanoparticles exhibit superior oxygen evolution performance over commercial RuO 2 , and the doping of Cu into the ultrasmall RuO 2 nanoparticles further enhances the oxygen evolution performance of the catalyst. The outstanding OER and decent HER catalytic activity endow the complex with impressive overall water splitting performance superior to that of the state‐of‐the‐art electrocatalysts, which just require 1.47 and 1.67 V to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm −2 and 100 mA cm −2 . The density functional theory calculations reveal that a Cu dopant could effectively tailor the d‐band center, thereby tuning electronic structure of Ru activity sites on the RuO 2 (110) plane and ultimately improving the OER performance of RuO 2 .