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Published on: October 5, 2019
Support Regulation Strategy Synergistic with Ru Single-Atom Catalyst for Energy-Saving Hydrogen Production Assisted
Yaqi Qin1, Kechen Du1, Yuqiu Wang1
1School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China.
Abstract:
The slow kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction limits electrochemical overall water splitting (OWS). To address this, integrating thermodynamically favorable organic electro-oxidation with the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) can enhance the hydrogen production performance. Notably, 5-amino-1H-tetrazole oxidation-assisted OWS not only achieves energy-saving hydrogen production but also produces energetic compound 5,5'-azotetrazolate salts in a mild manner. This necessitates in-depth research into catalysts with straightforward synthesis methods and excellent performance for energy-saving hydrogen production. Supported single-atom catalysts (SACs) have high dispersibility and can reduce the overall use of precious metals. Here, we report a highly efficient HER catalyst consisting of a Ru single atom anchored on low-crystallinity Zn-doped Ni2P nanosheets (Ru-LC-ZNP). The catalyst achieves a low overpotential of 28.9 mV at -10 mA cm-2, demonstrating excellent stability for at least 100 h with no noticeable activity loss. The experimental results indicate that the outstanding alkaline HER performance can be attributed to the synergistic optimization between the Ru single atom and the low-crystallinity support. By coupling water splitting with 5-AT electro-oxidation, the cell voltage of water electrolysis can be enormously reduced to only 1.26 V at 10 mA cm-2. This work provides insights into the mechanism of supported SACs as active HER catalysts.
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