Facilitating alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction on the hetero-interfaced Ru/RuO2 through Pt single atoms doping

Yiming Zhu; Malte Klingenhof; Chenlong Gao; Toshinari Koketsu; Gregor Weiser; Yecan Pi; Shangheng Liu; Lijun Sui; Jingrong Hou; Jiayi Li; Haomin Jiang; Limin Xu; Wei-Hsiang Huang; Chih-Wen Pao; Menghao Yang; Zhiwei Hu; Peter Strasser; Jiwei Ma

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-45654-9

Facilitating alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction on the hetero-interfaced Ru/RuO₂ through Pt single atoms doping

Nat Commun. 2024 Feb 16;15(1):1447. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-45654-9.

Authors

Yiming Zhu¹, Malte Klingenhof², Chenlong Gao¹, Toshinari Koketsu², Gregor Weiser², Yecan Pi³, Shangheng Liu⁴, Lijun Sui¹, Jingrong Hou¹, Jiayi Li¹, Haomin Jiang^{5

6}, Limin Xu^{7

8}, Wei-Hsiang Huang⁹, Chih-Wen Pao⁹, Menghao Yang¹⁰, Zhiwei Hu¹¹, Peter Strasser¹², Jiwei Ma¹³

Affiliations

¹ Shanghai Key Laboratory for R&D and Application of Metallic Functional Materials, Institute of New Energy for Vehicles, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tongji University, 201804, Shanghai, China.
² Technische Universität Berlin, Department of Chemistry, 10623, Berlin, Germany.
³ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, 225002, Jiangsu, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, 361005, Xiamen, China.
⁵ Baosteel Central Research Institute, Baoshan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd., 201999, Shanghai, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Development and Application Technology of Automotive Steels, Baosteel, 201900, Shanghai, China.
⁷ Baowu Aluminum Technical Center, Baosteel Central Research Institute, Baoshan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd., 201999, Shanghai, China.
⁸ Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Metals for Lightweight Transportation, 201999, Shanghai, China.
⁹ National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Hsinchu, 30076, Taiwan.
¹⁰ Shanghai Key Laboratory for R&D and Application of Metallic Functional Materials, Institute of New Energy for Vehicles, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tongji University, 201804, Shanghai, China. menghaoyoung@tongji.edu.cn.
¹¹ Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Nöthnitzer Strasse 40, 01187, Dresden, Germany. zhiwei.hu@cpfs.mpg.de.
¹² Technische Universität Berlin, Department of Chemistry, 10623, Berlin, Germany. pstrasser@tu-berlin.de.
¹³ Shanghai Key Laboratory for R&D and Application of Metallic Functional Materials, Institute of New Energy for Vehicles, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tongji University, 201804, Shanghai, China. jiwei.ma@tongji.edu.cn.

Abstract

Exploring an active and cost-effective electrocatalyst alternative to carbon-supported platinum nanoparticles for alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) have remained elusive to date. Here, we report a catalyst based on platinum single atoms (SAs) doped into the hetero-interfaced Ru/RuO₂ support (referred to as Pt-Ru/RuO₂), which features a low HER overpotential, an excellent stability and a distinctly enhanced cost-based activity compared to commercial Pt/C and Ru/C in 1 M KOH. Advanced physico-chemical characterizations disclose that the sluggish water dissociation is accelerated by RuO₂ while Pt SAs and the metallic Ru facilitate the subsequent H* combination. Theoretical calculations correlate with the experimental findings. Furthermore, Pt-Ru/RuO₂ only requires 1.90 V to reach 1 A cm^-2 and delivers a high price activity in the anion exchange membrane water electrolyzer, outperforming the benchmark Pt/C. This research offers a feasible guidance for developing the noble metal-based catalysts with high performance and low cost toward practical H₂ production.