Fabricating Ru Atom-Doped Novel FeP₄/Fe₂PO₅ Heterogeneous Interface for Overall Water Splitting in Alkaline...

Developing bifunctional electrocatalysts with low-content noble metals and high activity and stability is crucial for water splitting. Herein, we reported a novel Ru doped FeP₄/Fe₂PO₅ heterogeneous interface catalyst (Ru@FeP₄/Fe₂PO₅) for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) by heat treatment coupling electrodeposition strategy. Experiments disclosed that Ru@FeP₄/Fe₂PO₅ proclaimed excellent catalytic activity for the OER (249 mV@100 mA cm^-2) and HER (49 mV@10 mA cm^-2) in a 1 M KOH environment. More importantly, the mass activity and turnover frequency of Ru@FeP₄/Fe₂PO₅ were 117 and 108 times higher than that of commercial RuO₂ at an overpotential of 300 mV during the OER, respectively. In addition, the assembled Ru@FeP₄/Fe₂PO₅ || Ru@FeP₄/Fe₂PO₅ system could retain superior durability in a two-electrode system for 134 h at 300 mA cm^-2. Further mechanism studies revealed that Ru atoms in Ru@FeP₄/Fe₂PO₅ act in a key role for the excellent activity during water splitting because the electronic structure of Ru sites could be optimized by the interaction between Ru and Fe atoms at the interface to strengthen the adsorption of reaction intermediates. Besides, the introduction of Ru atoms could also enhance the charge transfer, which effectually accelerates the reaction kinetics. The strategy of anchoring Ru atom on novel heterostructure provides a promising path to boost the overall activity of electrocatalysts for water splitting.