Channel-Rich RuCu Nanosheets for pH-Universal Overall Water Splitting Electrocatalysis

Qing Yao; Bolong Huang; Nan Zhang; Mingzi Sun; Qi Shao; Xiaoqing Huang

doi:10.1002/anie.201908092

Channel-Rich RuCu Nanosheets for pH-Universal Overall Water Splitting Electrocatalysis

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2019 Sep 23;58(39):13983-13988. doi: 10.1002/anie.201908092. Epub 2019 Aug 14.

Authors

Qing Yao¹, Bolong Huang², Nan Zhang¹, Mingzi Sun², Qi Shao¹, Xiaoqing Huang¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Ren'ai Road 199, 215123, Soochow, China.
² Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR.

PMID: 31342633
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201908092

Abstract

Channel-rich RuCu snowflake-like nanosheets (NSs) composed of crystallized Ru and amorphous Cu were used as efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER), hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), and overall water splitting in pH-universal electrolytes. The optimized RuCu NSs/C-350 °C and RuCu NSs/C-250 °C show attractive activities of OER and HER with low overpotentials and small Tafel slopes, respectively. When applied to overall water splitting, the optimized RuCu NSs/C can reach 10 mA cm^-2 at cell voltages of only 1.49, 1.55, 1.49 and 1.50 V in 1 m KOH, 0.1 m KOH, 0.5 m H₂ SO₄ and 0.05 m H₂ SO₄ , respectively, much lower than those of commercial Ir/C∥Pt/C. The optimized electrolyzer exhibits superior durability with small potential change after up to 45 h in 1 m KOH, showing a class of efficient functional electrocatalysts for overall water splitting.

Keywords: channels; electrocatalysis; nanosheets; overall water splitting; ruthenium.

Publication types

Review