RuCoO<sub><i>x</i></sub> Nanofoam as a High-Performance Trifunctional Electrocatalyst for Rechargeable Zinc-Air Batteries and Water Splitting.

Zhou, Chenhui; Zhao, Siming; Meng, Haibing; Han, Ying; Jiang, Qinyuan; Wang, Baoshun; Shi, Xiaofei; Zhang, Wenshuo et al. · Nano Lett · 2021

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Designing high-performance trifunctional electrocatalysts for ORR/OER/HER with outstanding activity and stability for each reaction is quite significant yet challenging for renewable energy technologies. Herein, a highly efficient and durable trifunctional electrocatalyst RuCoO<sub><i>x</i></sub> is prepared by a unique one-pot glucose-blowing approach. Remarkably, RuCoO<sub><i>x</i></sub> catalyst exhibits a small potential difference (Δ<i>E</i>) of 0.65 V and low HER overpotential of 37 mV (10 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>), as well as a negligible decay of overpotential after 200 000/10 000/10 000 CV cycles for ORR/OER/HER, all of which show overwhelming superiorities among the advanced trifunctional electrocatalysts. When used in liquid rechargeable Zn-air batteries and water splitting electrolyzer, RuCoO<sub><i>x</i></sub> exhibits high efficiency and outstanding durability even at quite large current density. Such excellent performance can be attributed to the rational combination of targeted ORR/OER/HER active sites into one electrocatalyst based on the double-phase coupling strategy, which induces sufficient electronic structure modulation and synergistic effect for enhanced trifunctional properties.