Developing high-performance electrocatalysts for alkaline hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) is crucial for the commercialization of anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs). Here, boron interstitially inserted ruthenium (B-Ru/C) is synthesized and used as an anode catalyst for AEMFC, achieving a peak power density of 1.37 W cm-2 , close to the state-of-the-art commercial PtRu catalyst. Unexpectedly, instead of the monotonous decline of HOR kinetics with pH as generally believed, an inflection point behavior in the pH-dependent HOR kinetics on B-Ru/C is observed, showing an anomalous behavior that the HOR activity under alkaline electrolyte surpasses acidic electrolyte. Experimental results and density functional theory calculations reveal that the upshifted d-band center of Ru after the intervention of interstitial boron can lead to enhanced adsorption ability of OH and H2 O, which together with the reduced energy barrier of water formation, contributes to the outstanding alkaline HOR performance with a mass activity of 1.716 mA µgPGM -1 , which is 13.4-fold and 5.2-fold higher than that of Ru/C and commercial Pt/C, respectively.
Keywords: anion exchange membrane fuel cells; d-band center; heteroatom doping; hydrogen oxidation reaction; interstitial boron.
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