Fabrication of Ru-Doped Cumnbp Micro Cluster Electrocatalyst with Highefficiency and Stability for Electrochemical Water Splitting Application at the Industrial-Level Current Density

Abstract

Electrochemical water splitting is the only approach to generate environmentally friendly green hydrogen energy and it is essential to design highly efficient electrocatalysts at affordable cost to facilitate the redox reactions of HER and OER. In this work, micro-clustered Ru/CuMnBP electrocatalyst is demonstrated by combining hydrothermal deposition and soaking-assisted Ru doping approaches supported on Ni foam. Ru/CuMnBP micro-clusters exhibits relatively low HER/OER turnover overpotentials of 11 mV and 85 mV at 10 mA/cm2 in 1 M KOH respectively, which compares with the state-of-the arts. It also demonstrates a low 2-E turnover cell voltage of 1.53 V at 10 mA/cm2 for an overall water-splitting, which  is comparable with the benchmark electrodes of Pt/C and RuO2. At a super high-current density of 2,000 mA/cm2, the dual functional Ru/CuMnBP demonstrates exceptionally low 2-E cell voltage of 3.13 V and also exhibits superior stability for over 10 h in 1 M KOH. Excellent electrochemical performances can be originated from the large electrochemical active surface area with the micro cluster morphology and rational combination of Cu, Mn, B and P. The Ru doping can increase reactive sites and stability, and the post-annealing can improve the overall crystallinity of electrocatalyst. Ru/CuMnBP micro-clusters can offer superior electrocatalyst and the small usage of Ru with the simple soaking doping approach can significantly improve the electrochemical reaction rates for both HER and OER.

Keywords: electrocatalyst. water splitting, CuMnPB, Ru doping, hydrothermal reaction