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Updated: Feb 14, 2026

Synthesis and Performance Characterizations of Transition Metal Single Atom Catalyst for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction
Published on: April 10, 2018
Ruthenium-Tungsten Composite Catalyst for the Efficient and Contamination-Resistant Electrochemical Evolution of
Ubisha Joshi1, Souradip Malkhandi1, Yi Ren2
1Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore , 3 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117543.
Abstract:
A new catalyst, prepared by a simple physical mixing of ruthenium (Ru) and tungsten (W) powders, has been discovered to interact synergistically to enhance the electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In an aqueous 0.5 M H2SO4 electrolyte, this catalyst, which contained a miniscule loading of 2-5 nm sized Ru nanoparticles (5.6 μg Ru per cm2 of geometric surface area of the working electrode), required an overpotential of only 85 mV to drive 10 mA/cm2 of H2 evolution. Interestingly, our catalyst also exhibited good immunity against deactivation during HER from ionic contaminants, such as Cu2+ (over 24 h). We unravel the mechanism of synergy between W and Ru for catalyzing H2 evolution using Cu underpotential deposition, photoelectron spectroscopy, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. We found a decrease in the d-band and an increase in the electron work function of Ru in the mixed composite, which made it bind to H more weakly (more Pt-like). The H-adsorption energy on Ru deposited on W was found, by DFT, to be very close to that of Pt(111), explaining the improved HER activity.
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