Doping Ruthenium into Metal Matrix for Promoted pH-Universal Hydrogen Evolution

Jiqing Jiao; Nan-Nan Zhang; Chao Zhang; Ning Sun; Yuan Pan; Chen Chen; Jun Li; Meijie Tan; Ruixue Cui; Zhaolin Shi; Jiangwei Zhang; Hai Xiao; Tongbu Lu

doi:10.1002/advs.202200010

Doping Ruthenium into Metal Matrix for Promoted pH-Universal Hydrogen Evolution

Adv Sci (Weinh). 2022 May;9(15):e2200010. doi: 10.1002/advs.202200010. Epub 2022 Mar 25.

Authors

Jiqing Jiao^{1

2

3}, Nan-Nan Zhang⁴, Chao Zhang^{1

2}, Ning Sun^{1

2}, Yuan Pan⁵, Chen Chen⁴, Jun Li⁴, Meijie Tan^{1

2}, Ruixue Cui^{1

2}, Zhaolin Shi^{1

2}, Jiangwei Zhang⁶, Hai Xiao⁴, Tongbu Lu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ MOE International Joint Laboratory of Materials Microstructure, Institute for New Energy Materials and Low Carbon Technologies, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, 300384, China.
² Haihe Laboratory of Sustainable Chemical Transformations, Tianjin, 300192, China.
³ College of Materials Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Bio-Fibers and Eco-Textiles, Qingdao University, Qingdao, 266071, China.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, 266580, China.
⁶ Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy & State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, P. R. China.

Abstract

For heterogeneous catalysts, the active sites exposed on the surface have been investigated intensively, yet the effect of the subsurface-underlying atoms is much less scrutinized. Here, a surface-engineering strategy to dope Ru into the subsurface/surface of Co matrix is reported, which alters the electronic structure and lattice strain of the catalyst surface. Using hydrogen evolution (HER) as a model reaction, it is found that the subsurface doping Ru can optimize the hydrogen adsorption energy and improve the catalytic performance, with overpotentials of 28 and 45 mV at 10 mA cm^-2 in alkaline and acidic media, respectively, and in particular, 28 mV in neutral electrolyte. The experimental results and theoretical calculations indicate that the subsurface/surface doping Ru improves the HER efficiency in terms of both thermodynamics and kinetics. The approach here stands as an effective strategy for catalyst design via subsurface engineering at the atomic level.

Keywords: hydrogen evolution reaction; pH-universal; surface engineering; zeolitic imidazolate frameworks.

Abstract

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