Dispersing small Ru nanoparticles into boron nitride remodified by reduced graphene oxide for high-efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction

Abdulwahab Salah; Hong-Da Ren; Nabilah Al-Ansi; Huaqiao Tan; Feiyang Yu; Liu Yanchun; Badr M Thamer; Adel Al-Salihy; Liang Zhao; Yangguang Li

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.04.094

Dispersing small Ru nanoparticles into boron nitride remodified by reduced graphene oxide for high-efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Aug 15:644:378-387. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.04.094. Epub 2023 Apr 24.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Polyoxometalate and Reticular Material Chemistry of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Chemistry, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, PR China; Department of Science Curricula and Teaching Methodologies, Faculty of Education, Sana'a University, Yemen.
² Key Laboratory of Polyoxometalate and Reticular Material Chemistry of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Chemistry, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, PR China.
³ Faculty of Chemistry, National and Local United Engineering Laboratory for Power Batteries, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, PR China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Polyoxometalate and Reticular Material Chemistry of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Chemistry, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, PR China. Electronic address: tanhq870@nenu.edu.cn.
⁵ Chemistry Department, Science College, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China.
⁷ Key Laboratory of Polyoxometalate and Reticular Material Chemistry of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Chemistry, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, PR China. Electronic address: zhaoliang@nenu.edu.cn.
⁸ Key Laboratory of Polyoxometalate and Reticular Material Chemistry of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Chemistry, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, PR China. Electronic address: liyg658@nenu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37120886
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.04.094

Abstract

Ruthenium (Ru) electrocatalysts suffer from excessive aggregation during the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), which hinders their practical application for hydrogen production. Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is a potential carrier that could solve the above problem, but its wide band gap and low conductivity become obstacles. Herein, we provide a new, facile, low-cost, and effective strategy (killing two birds with one stone) to overcome the above issues. After modifying h-BN with reduced graphene oxide (rGO), a small amount of Ru nanoparticles (NPs) (2.2 %) are dispersed into BN with approximately uniform distribution and size control of Ru nanoparticles (∼3.85 nm). The strong synergy between Ru NPs and BN@C in the optimal Ru/BN@C (Ru wt.% = 2.22 %) electrocatalyst endows it an outstanding HER activity, with small HER overpotentials (η₁₀ = 32 mV, 35 mV) and low Tafel slopes (33.89 mV dec^-1, 37.66 mV dec^-1) in both 1 M KOH and 0.5 M H₂SO₄ media, respectively, along with good long-term stability for 50 h. Based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the addition of Ru to BN has been successful in creating fresh active sites for H*, with good possible adsorption/desorption ability (ΔG_H* = -0.24 eV) while preserving low water dissociation (ΔG_b = 0.46 eV) in an alkaline environment. As a result, the Ru/BN composite exhibits outstanding HER activity in both acidic and alkaline conditions. Furthermore, this study provides, for the first time, a template-free strategy to develop a good and low-cost supporter (BN) for dispersing other noble metals and the formation of highly efficient HER/OER electrocatalysts.

Keywords: Boron nitride; Electrocatalyst; Graphene oxide; Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER); Ruthenium.