Modulating electronic structure of metal-organic frameworks by introducing atomically dispersed Ru for efficient hydrogen evolution.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 33649349.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-21595-5 and PMC identifier 7921655.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Developing high-performance electrocatalysts toward hydrogen evolution reaction is important for clean and sustainable hydrogen energy, yet still challenging. Herein, we report a single-atom strategy to construct excellent metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) hydrogen evolution reaction electrocatalyst (NiRu<sub>0.13</sub>-BDC) by introducing atomically dispersed Ru. Significantly, the obtained NiRu<sub>0.13</sub>-BDC exhibits outstanding hydrogen evolution activity in all pH, especially with a low overpotential of 36 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> in 1 M phosphate buffered saline solution, which is comparable to commercial Pt/C. X-ray absorption fine structures and the density functional theory calculations reveal that introducing Ru single-atom can modulate electronic structure of metal center in the MOF, leading to the optimization of binding strength for H<sub>2</sub>O and H*, and the enhancement of HER performance. This work establishes single-atom strategy as an efficient approach to modulate electronic structure of MOFs for catalyst design.