Scientists develop sub-5 nm Ru-based alloy catalysts for environment friendly water splitting

A analysis staff led by Prof. Liang Changhao from the Hefei Institutes of Bodily Science of the Chinese language Academy of Sciences has developed a novel methodology for synthesizing carbon nanotube (CNT)-supported intermetallic RuM (M = Cu, Rh, and Pd) alloys dominated by sub-5 nm nanoparticles (NPs). Their findings are revealed in Superior Science.

Sub-5 nm Ru-based alloys have gained consideration as promising electrochemical catalysts for water splitting. Nonetheless, their synthesis has been constrained by thermodynamic immiscibility, which limits the event of a universally relevant preparation methodology.

On this examine, the analysis staff employed nanosecond laser ultrafast confined alloying (LUCA) to beat the immiscible-to-miscible transition barrier within the synthesis of CNT-supported sub-5 nm bimetallic RuM alloy NPs.

Among the many synthesized catalysts, Ru₉₅Cu₅/CNTs demonstrated excellent electrocatalytic efficiency in alkaline hydrogen evolution response (HER), attaining an overpotential of simply 17 mV and a Tafel slope of 28.4 mV dec⁻¹ at 10 mA cm⁻².

Moreover, the catalyst exhibited exceptional stability, sustaining its efficiency over 5,000 cyclic voltammetry cycles. The Ru₉₅Cu₅/CNTs catalyst considerably outperformed LUCA-synthesized Ru₈₆Rh₁₄/CNTs, Ru₈₉Pd₁₁/CNTs, Ru, and Cu NP catalysts, in addition to industrial benchmark 20% Pt/C catalysts.

Furthermore, it exceeded the efficiency of different mainstream Ru-based catalysts, together with moist chemistry-synthesized RuRh particles (overpotential of 25 mV, Tafel slope of 47.5 mV dec⁻¹) and RuCu/CNTs synthesized by way of flash Joule heating (overpotential of 39 mV).

The alloying of non-noble metallic Cu with various atomic ratios of RuCu alloys is interesting because of the low worth of Cu and cost-effective synthesis for large-scale sensible purposes.

This examine highlights the good potential of LUCA for screening new courses of HER catalysts.