Engineering Amorphous/Crystalline Ru(OH)3/CoFe-Layered Double Hydroxide for Hydrogen Evolution at 1000 mA cm-2

Zhuoer Cheng; Zhanming Tan; Li Zhou; Linfeng Li; Xuefei Xu; Muk Fung Yuen; Ligui Li; Yuanjie Pang; Damien P Debecker; Ruguang Ma; Chundong Wang

doi:10.1021/acs.inorgchem.3c00686

Engineering Amorphous/Crystalline Ru(OH)₃/CoFe-Layered Double Hydroxide for Hydrogen Evolution at 1000 mA cm^-2

Inorg Chem. 2023 May 15;62(19):7424-7433. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.3c00686. Epub 2023 May 4.

Authors

Zhuoer Cheng^{1

2}, Zhanming Tan³, Li Zhou¹, Linfeng Li², Xuefei Xu², Muk Fung Yuen⁴, Ligui Li⁵, Yuanjie Pang⁶, Damien P Debecker⁷, Ruguang Ma⁸, Chundong Wang²

Affiliations

¹ School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, South-Central MinZu University, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China.
² School of Integrated Circuits, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China.
³ College of Horticulture and Forestry, Tarim University, Alar 843300, P. R. China.
⁴ The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518172, P. R. China.
⁵ New Energy Research Institute, School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Centre, Guangzhou 510006, P. R. China.
⁶ School of Optical and Electronic Information, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China.
⁷ Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanoscience (IMCN), UCLouvain, Louvain-La-Neuve 1348, Belgium.
⁸ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou 215009, P. R. China.

PMID: 37141089
DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.3c00686

Abstract

For large-scale industrial applications, it is highly desirable to create effective, economical electrocatalysts with long-term stability for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) at a large current density. Herein, we report a unique motif with crystalline CoFe-layered hydroxide (CoFe-LDH) nanosheets enclosed by amorphous ruthenium hydroxide (a-Ru(OH)₃/CoFe-LDH) to realize the efficient hydrogen production at 1000 mA cm^-2, with a low overpotential of 178 mV in alkaline media. During the continuous HER process for 40 h at such a large current density, the potential remains almost constant with only slight fluctuations, indicating good long-term stability. The remarkable HER performance can be attributed to the charge redistribution caused by abundant oxygen vacancies in a-Ru(OH)₃/CoFe-LDH. The increased electron density of states lowers the charge-transfer resistance and promotes the formation and release of H₂ molecules. The water-splitting electrolyzer with a-Ru(OH)₃/CoFe-LDH as both an anode and a cathode in 1.0 M KOH demonstrates stable hydrogen production and a 100% faradic efficiency. The design strategy of interface engineering in this work will inspire the design of practical electrocatalysts for water splitting on an industrial scale.