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Updated: Mar 25, 2026

Heterogeneous Removal of Water-Soluble Ruthenium Olefin Metathesis Catalyst from Aqueous Media Via Host-Guest Interaction
Published on: August 23, 2018
Electride-Induced Electronic Modulation of Ruthenium Catalyst for Highly Efficient Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution
Zhiqi Wang1,2, Jianan Su1,2, Cheng Li1,2
1State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, P. R. China.
Researchers developed a novel electride-supported Ruthenium catalyst for efficient hydrogen evolution. This new catalyst demonstrates excellent performance and stability, paving the way for advanced electrocatalyst design.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Electrochemistry
- Catalysis
Background:
- Electrides, materials with localized electrons acting as anions, show promise for catalysis.
- Their application as supports for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts is limited by reactivity in aqueous environments.
Purpose of the Study:
- To design a stable electride-supported HER catalyst with high performance.
- To investigate the mechanism of HER on electride-supported catalysts.
Main Methods:
- Rational design of Ruthenium (Ru) supported on Nd2ScSi2 electride.
- Electrochemical testing in 1.0 m KOH.
- In situ spectroscopic analyses and density functional theory (DFT) calculations.
Main Results:
- The Ru/Nd2ScSi2 catalyst achieved an overpotential of 48 mV at -10 mA cm-2 for HER.
- Demonstrated excellent long-term stability.
- Mechanistic studies revealed anionic Ru species on the electride surface are key to HER activity.
Conclusions:
- Electride supports can effectively modulate supported metal catalysts for enhanced HER.
- Anionic Ru sites facilitate water dissociation and tune hydrogen adsorption.
- This work presents a new strategy for designing high-efficiency HER electrocatalysts via electronic structure engineering.
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