Constructing Symmetry-Mismatched Ru<sub><i>x</i></sub>Fe<sub>3-<i>x</i></sub>O<sub>4</sub> Heterointerface-Supported Ru Clusters for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution and Oxidation Reactions.

Mu, Xueqin; Zhang, Xingyue; Chen, Ziyue; Gao, Yun; Yu, Min; Chen, Ding; Pan, Haozhe; Liu, Suli et al. · Nano Lett · 2024

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Ru-related catalysts have shown excellent performance for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR); however, a deep understanding of Ru-active sites on a nanoscale heterogeneous support for hydrogen catalysis is still lacking. Herein, a click chemistry strategy is proposed to design Ru cluster-decorated nanometer Ru<sub><i>x</i></sub>Fe<sub>3-<i>x</i></sub>O<sub>4</sub> heterointerfaces (Ru/Ru<sub><i>x</i></sub>Fe<sub>3-<i>x</i></sub>O<sub>4</sub>) as highly effective bifunctional hydrogen catalysts. It is found that introducing Ru into nanometric Fe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> species breaks the symmetry configuration and optimizes the active site in Ru/Ru<sub><i>x</i></sub>Fe<sub>3-<i>x</i></sub>O<sub>4</sub> for HER and HOR. As expected, the catalyst displays prominent alkaline HER and HOR performance with mass activity much higher than that of commercial Pt/C as well as robust stability during catalysis because of the strong interaction between the Ru cluster and the Ru<sub><i>x</i></sub>Fe<sub>3-<i>x</i></sub>O<sub>4</sub> support, and the optimized adsorption intermediate (H<sub>ad</sub> and OH<sub>ad</sub>). This work sheds light on a promsing approach to improving the electrocatalysis performance of catalysts by the breaking of atomic dimension symmetry.