Benchmarking Phases of Ruthenium Dichalcogenides for Electrocatalysis of Hydrogen Evolution: Theoretical and Experimental Insights

A new class of transition metal ‐based dichalcogenide catalysts, ruthenium dichalcogenides (RuX2, X = S, Se, Te), are comprehensively investigated toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) from theoretical calculation predictions to experimental verifications. All kinds of single ‐phase RuX2 crystals are successfully synthesized via a simple strategy. Pt ‐like or even superior to Pt catalytic performance are achieved in both acidic and alkaline media. AbstractThe hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a significant cathode step in electrochemical devices, especially in water splitting, but developing efficient HER catalysts remains a great challenge. Herein, comprehensive density functional theory calculations are presented to explore the intrinsic HER behaviors of a series of ruthenium dichalcogenide crystals (RuX2, X = S, Se, Te). In addition, a simple and easily scaled production strategy is proposed to synthesize RuX2 nanoparticles uniformly deposited on carbon nanotubes. Consistent with theoretical predictions, the RuX2 catalysts exhibit impressive HER catalytic behavior. In particular, marcasite ‐type RuTe2 (RuTe2‐M) achieves Pt‐like activity (35.7 mV at 10 mA cm−2) in an acidic electrolyte, and pyrite ‐type RuSe2 presents outstanding HER performance in an alkaline media (29.5  mV at 10 mA cm−2), even superior to that of commercial Pt/C. More importantly, a RuTe2‐M‐based proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer and a RuSe2‐based anion exchang...

Source: Small - February 16, 2021 Category: Nanotechnology Authors: Zhen Zhang, Cheng Jiang, Ping Li, Keguang Yao, Zhiliang Zhao, Jiantao Fan, Hui Li, Haijiang Wang Tags: Research Article Source Type: research