Accelerating Surface Reconstruction by Introducing Ru Atoms for Boosting Oxygen Evolution Reaction Performance

Abstract

The slow transfer of four electrons in oxygen evolution reaction (OER) process has become a tremendous challenge for electrochemical water splitting. Herein, we constructed Fe doped Ni3S2 (NFS) and Ru doped NFS (Ru-NFS) as catalyst models to study the effect of Ru doping. A novel Ru-doped heterostructure electrocatalyst is successfully synthesized on Ni foam by one-step hydrothermal method for efficient overall water splitting in alkaline media. Atom Ru anchoring on NFS support can not only reduce material preparation costs, but also form O-Ru-S asymmetric coordination, effectively optimizing electronic structure and accelerating surface reconstruction for boosting OER activity. The unique vertical growth nanowire structure exposes more active sites, endowing Ru NFS larger ECSA, efficient electron transport, and superior reaction kinetics properties. Due to its compositional and structural advantages, Ru-NFS exhibits significantly enhanced catalytic activity along with excellent stability in the OER process. As expected, Ru-NFS exhibits low overpotentials of 206 and 245 mV at current densities of 10 and 100 mA cm-2, respectively. This work could motivate to reduce dependence on precious metals, providing alternative strategies for addressing energy crises, reducing energy consumption, and promoting the recycling of hydrogen energy.

Keywords: Ru single atom anchoring, Vertical growth of nanowires, Heterostructure, Oxygen Evolution Reaction, Electrocatalysis