Ru to W electron donation for boosted HER from acidic to alkaline on Ru/WNO sponges

Developing high-efficiency hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts is of great interest for the large-scale high-purity hydrogen production, which, unfortunately, is largely blocked by the sluggish kinetics of the electro-chemical dissociation step of water molecules. Herein, a MOF-derived method has been developed to prepare Ru nanoparticles-anchored sponge-like WNO embedded in N-doped carbon layers (Ru@WNO-C). The fabricated catalyst Ru@WNO-C (Ru: 0.9 wt%) shows excellent HER catalytic activity and long-term stability with the overpotentials of 172, 358 and 24 mV at 10 mA/cm(2) in 0.5 M H2SO4, 1 M Na2SO4 and 1 M KOH, respectively. More impressively, the overpotentials, especially in neutral medium, decrease markedly during the durability tests owing to the catalyst structure activation after residual Zn species leaching. The enhanced catalytic activity of Ru@WNO-C during operation is mainly attributed to the in-situ electron donation from Ru to W, leading to the easier cleavage of highly polarized H-OH bond of water molecules and thus endowing Ru@WNO-C with excellent HER catalytic performance in non-acidic solution.

Automated summary

The developed Ru@WNO-C catalyst exhibits excellent HER catalytic performance and long-term stability, mainly due to the in-situ electron donation from Ru to W and the catalyst structure activation after residual Zn species leaching. Additionally, the catalyst shows outstanding HER catalytic activity in non-acidic solutions.