Partially exposed RuP2 surface in hybrid structure endows its bifunctionality for hydrazine oxidation and hydrogen evolution catalysis

Yapeng Li; Jihua Zhang; Yi Liu; Qizhu Qian; Ziyun Li; Yin Zhu; Genqiang Zhang

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abb4197

Partially exposed RuP₂ surface in hybrid structure endows its bifunctionality for hydrazine oxidation and hydrogen evolution catalysis

Sci Adv. 2020 Oct 28;6(44):eabb4197. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abb4197. Print 2020 Oct.

Authors

Yapeng Li¹, Jihua Zhang², Yi Liu¹, Qizhu Qian¹, Ziyun Li¹, Yin Zhu³, Genqiang Zhang⁴

Affiliations

¹ Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, Anhui, China.
² Guizhou Provincial Key Laboratory of Computational Nano-Material Science, Guizhou Education University, Guiyang 550018, Guizhou, China.
³ Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, Anhui, China.
⁴ Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, Anhui, China. gqzhangmse@ustc.edu.cn.

Abstract

Replacing the sluggish anode reaction in water electrolysis with thermodynamically favorable hydrazine oxidation could achieve energy-efficient H₂ production, while the shortage of bifunctional catalysts limits its scale development. Here, we presented the scalable one-pot synthesis of partially exposed RuP₂ nanoparticle-decorated carbon porous microsheets, which can act as the superior bifunctional catalyst outperforming Pt/C for both hydrazine oxidation reaction and hydrogen evolution reaction, where an ultralow working potential of -70 mV and an ultrasmall overpotential of 24 mV for 10 mA cm^-2 can be achieved. The two-electrode electrolyzer can reach 10 mA cm^-2 with a record-low cell voltage of 23 mV and an ultrahigh current density of 522 mA cm^-2 at 1.0 V. The DFT calculations unravel the notability of partial exposure in the hybrid structure, as the exposed Ru atoms are the active sites for hydrazine dehydrogenation, while the C atoms exhibit a more thermoneutral value for H* adsorption.

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