Large-current-density electrocatalytic water splitting is essential for industrial hydrogen production, but it is currently hindered by lacking active and robust hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts. Herein, a novel electrode of hollow nanowire arrays constructed by NiCo modified RuO2 nanoparticles on Ni foam (NiCo@RuO2 HNAs/NF) for high-performance HER was reported. Such efficient electrode was fabricated by ion exchange with NF-supported Ni modified cobalt carbonate hydroxide nanowire arrays template (Ni@CoCH NAs/NF). The formed NiCo@RuO2 HNAs/NF only needed overpotentials of 148.5 and 236.1 mV to deliver 500 and 1000 mA cm-2 , respectively, along with excellent stability at the high-current-density for 300 h. Such remarkable HER performance was mainly attributed to the hollow structure with high surface area, hydrophilic feature, and NiCo@RuO2 with optimized hydrogen evolution kinetics. After coupling with anodic Ni@CoCH NAs/NF, our electrolyzer outperformed Pt/C-IrO2 and most other Ru-based electrolyzers. This work provides a promising Pt alternative catalyst for profitable H2 production.
Keywords: Hollow Ru-based catalyst; Hydrogen evolution reaction; Large current density; Long-term stability; Self-templated strategy.
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