Coupling of Ru and O-Vacancy on 2D Mo-Based Electrocatalyst Via a Solid-Phase Interface Reaction Strategy for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

For most Mo-based electrocatalysts, the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity depends on their own active structural defects or extrinsic transition metal centers. In this work, in order to combine the advantages of these two different active centers, a solid-phase interface reaction (SPIR) strategy is proposed, which simultaneously introduces oxygen vacancies (V-O) and metal centers (Ru) into the 2D Mo-based catalyst. Briefly, this SPIR occurs at the interface between MoS2 and RuO2 nanoparticles of the RuO2/MoS2 precursor when overcoming the kinetic barriers at a suitable temperature under an Ar atmosphere. Since the adjacent parts of RuO2 and MoS2 are converted to Ru and MoO2 in situ, a composite system MiSC-1 containing a large amount of active Ru and V-O on MoO2 plane is obtained. Furthermore, theoretical calculations confirm the proposed mechanism of SPIR. MiSC-1 shows excellent stability and catalytic performance in the HER, with an overpotential value of 12 mV at 10 mA cm(-2) in 1.0 M KOH. Additionally, MiSC-1 exhibits excellent performance in the hydrolysis of ammonia borane. This report will provide a versatile platform for the preparation of a multi-component catalyst with high total activity as well as the identification of the structural details of the catalysts.

Automated summary

The study introduces a solid-phase interface reaction (SPIR) strategy to incorporate oxygen vacancies (V-O) and metal centers (Ru) into a 2D Mo-based catalyst, resulting in the composite system MiSC-1 with excellent performance in the hydrogen evolution reaction and ammonia borane hydrolysis. Additionally, theoretical calculations confirm the proposed mechanism of SPIR.