Fast and Durable Alkaline Hydrogen Oxidation Reaction at the Electron-Deficient Ruthenium-Ruthenium Oxide Interface

Xiaoyu Baohua Zhang; Lixue Xia; Guoqiang Zhao; Bingxing Zhang; Yaping Chen; Jian Chen; Mingxia Gao; Yinzhu Jiang; Yongfeng Liu; Hongge Pan; Wenping Sun

doi:10.1002/adma.202208821

Fast and Durable Alkaline Hydrogen Oxidation Reaction at the Electron-Deficient Ruthenium-Ruthenium Oxide Interface

Adv Mater. 2023 Mar;35(9):e2208821. doi: 10.1002/adma.202208821. Epub 2023 Jan 1.

Authors

Xiaoyu Baohua Zhang^{1

2}, Lixue Xia³, Guoqiang Zhao¹, Bingxing Zhang¹, Yaping Chen¹, Jian Chen⁴, Mingxia Gao¹, Yinzhu Jiang¹, Yongfeng Liu¹, Hongge Pan^{1

4}, Wenping Sun^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, P. R. China.
² Zhejiang Carbon Neutral Innovation Institute and College of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310014, P. R. China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Silicate Materials for Architectures, International School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, P. R. China.
⁴ Institute of Science and Technology for New Energy, Xi'an Technological University, Xi'an, 710021, P. R. China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, P. R. China.

PMID: 36484270
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202208821

Abstract

The slow hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) kinetics under alkaline conditions remain a critical challenge for the practical application of alkaline exchange membrane fuel cells. Herein, Ru/RuO₂ in-plane heterostructures are designed with abundant active Ru-RuO₂ interface domains as efficient electrocatalysts for the HOR in alkaline media. The experimental and theoretical results demonstrate that interfacial Ru and RuO₂ domains at Ru-RuO₂ interfaces are the optimal H and OH adsorption sites, respectively, endowing the well-defined Ru(100)/RuO₂ (200) interface as the preferential region for fast alkaline hydrogen electrocatalysis. More importantly, the metallic Ru domains become electron deficient due to the strong interaction with RuO₂ domains and show substantially improved inoxidizability, which is vital to maintain durable HOR electrocatalytic activity. The optimal Ru/RuO₂ heterostructured electrocatalyst exhibits impressive alkaline HOR activity with an exchange current density of 8.86 mA cm^-2 and decent durability. The exceptional electrocatalytic performance of Ru/RuO₂ in-plane heterostructure can be attributed to the robust and multifunctional Ru-RuO₂ interfaces endowed by the unique metal-metal oxide domains.

Keywords: Ru/RuO 2; electrocatalysis; heterostructures; hydrogen oxidation reaction; interface engineering.

Abstract

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