Preparation of Three-Dimensional Ruthenium Oxide@Graphene Oxide Based on Etching of Ni-Al/Layered Double Hydroxides: Application for Electrochemical Hydrogen Generation

In this work, Ni-Al/layered double hydroxide is decorated on reduced graphene oxide (Ni-Al/LDH(#)rGOs) and ruthenium oxide is decorated on the surface of exfoliated graphene oxide (RuO2-EGO). Then, RuO2-EGO is used to synthesize a modified LDH as Ni-Al/(LDHRuO2)-Ru-#-EGO. The structures and compositions of the nanohybrids, including Ni-Al/LDH(#)rGOs, RuO2-EGO, and Ni-Al/(LDHRuO2)-Ru-#-EGO are verified using different techniques such as transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, FT-IR and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller. In a second stage of the study, the nanohybrids are investigated for their electrochemical hydrogen generation capabilities. Also, due to the instability of LDHs in acidic media, chemical etching of Ni-Al/(LDHRuO2)-Ru-#-EGO is used to prepare three-dimensional RuO2-EGO (TD-RuO2-EGO). Electrochemical results show that while TD-RuO2-EGO nanohybrid is superior in electrocatalytic activity to the other nanohybrids investigated, its hydrogen generation properties including onset potential, Tafel slope and stability are comparable with those of commercial Pt/C. (C) 2016 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.