Cu‐Doped Heterointerfaced Ru/RuSe2 Nanosheets with Optimized H and H2O Adsorption Boost Hydrogen Evolution Catalysis

• Published in: Advanced materials (Weinheim) Vol. 35; no. 23
• Main Authors: Wang, Kai, Zhou, Jinhui, Sun, Mingzi, Lin, Fangxu, Huang, Bolong, Lv, Fan, Zeng, Lingyou, Zhang, Qinghua, Gu, Lin, Luo, Mingchuan, Guo, Shaojun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 08.06.2023
• Subjects: Adsorption; Catalysis; Catalysts; Copper; Electrocatalysts; electron modulation; Electronic structure; heterogeneous catalysts; hydrogen evolution reaction; Hydrogen evolution reactions; Materials science; metal selenides; Nanosheets; Noble metals; Ruthenium; Synergistic effect
• ISSN: 0935-9648; 1521-4095
• DOI: 10.1002/adma.202300980

Ruthenium chalcogenide is a highly promising catalytic system as a Pt alternative for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, well‐studied ruthenium selenide (RuSe2) still exhibits sluggish HER kinetics in alkaline media due to the inappropriate adsorption strength of H and H2O. Herein, xx report a new design of Cu‐doped Ru/RuSe2 heterogeneous nanosheets (NSs) with optimized H and H2O adsorption strength for highly efficient HER catalysis in alkaline media. Theoretical calculations reveal that the superior HER performance is attributed to a synergistic effect of the unique heterointerfaced structure and Cu doping, which not only optimizes the electronic structure with a suitable d‐band center to suppress proton overbinding but also alleviates the energy barrier with enhanced H2O adsorption. As a result, Cu‐doped heterogeneous Ru/RuSe2 NSs exhibit a small overpotential of 23 mV at 10 mA cm−2, a low Tafel slope of 58.5 mV dec−1 and a high turnover frequency (TOF) value of 0.88 s−1 at 100 mV for HER in alkaline media, which is among the best catalysts in noble metal‐based electrocatalysts toward HER. The present Cu‐doped Ru/RuSe2 NSs interface catalyst is very stable for HER by showing no activity decay after 5000‐cycle potential sweeps. This work heralds that heterogeneous interface modulation opens up a new strategy for the designing of more efficient electrocatalysts. A class of Cu‐doped Ru/RuSe2 heterogeneous nanosheets for highly efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline media is designed and synthesized. The superior HER performance is attributed to a synergistic effect of the unique heterogeneous interface structure and Cu doping, which leads to the optimized H and H2O adsorption to boost hydrogen evolution catalysis.