An efficient and pH-universal ruthenium-based catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction

Nature Nanotechnology 12, 441 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nnano.2016.304

Authors: Javeed Mahmood, Feng Li, Sun-Min Jung, Mahmut Sait Okyay, Ishfaq Ahmad, Seok-Jin Kim, Noejung Park, Hu Young Jeong & Jong-Beom Baek
The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a crucial step in electrochemical water splitting and demands an efficient, durable and cheap catalyst if it is to succeed in real applications. For an energy-efficient HER, a catalyst must be able to trigger proton reduction with minimal overpotential and have fast kinetics. The most efficient catalysts in acidic media are platinum-based, as the strength of the Pt–H bond is associated with the fastest reaction rate for the HER. The use of platinum, however, raises issues linked to cost and stability in non-acidic media. Recently, non-precious-metal-based catalysts have been reported, but these are susceptible to acid corrosion and are typically much inferior to Pt-based catalysts, exhibiting higher overpotentials and lower stability. As a cheaper alternative to platinum, ruthenium possesses a similar bond strength with hydrogen (∼65 kcal mol–1), but has never been studied as a viable alternative for a HER catalyst. Here, we report a Ru-based catalyst for the HER that can operate both in acidic and alkaline media. Our catalyst is made of Ru nanoparticles dispersed within a nitrogenated holey two-dimensional carbon structure (Ru@C2N). The Ru@C2N electrocatalyst exhibits high turnover frequencies at 25 mV (0.67â...

Source: Nature Nanotechnology - February 13, 2017 Category: Nanotechnology Authors: Javeed Mahmood Feng Li Sun-Min Jung Mahmut Sait Okyay Ishfaq Ahmad Seok-Jin Kim Noejung Park Hu Young Jeong Jong-Beom Baek Tags: Letter Source Type: research