Enhanced Metal‐Support Interactions Boost the Electrocatalytic Water Splitting of Supported Ruthenium Nanoparticles on a Ni3N/NiO Heterojunction at Industrial Current Density

• Published in: Angewandte Chemie Vol. 135; no. 46
• Main Authors: Liu, Rui, Sun, Mingzi, Liu, Xiangjian, Lv, Zunhang, Yu, Xinyu, Wang, Jinming, Liu, Yarong, Li, Liuhua, Feng, Xiao, Yang, Wenxiu, Huang, Bolong, Wang, Bo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 13.11.2023
• Subjects: Catalysts; Chemistry; Current density; Density functional theory; Durability; Electroactivity; Electrochemical Water Splitting; Electrochemistry; Electronic Structure Modulation; Heterogeneous Interface; Heterojunctions; Heterostructures; Hydrogen production; Long-Term Stability; Metal-Support Interaction; Nanoparticles; Nickel oxides; Ruthenium; Seawater; Structural stability; Water splitting
• ISSN: 0044-8249; 1521-3757
• DOI: 10.1002/ange.202312644

Developing highly efficient and stable hydrogen production catalysts for electrochemical water splitting (EWS) at industrial current densities remains a great challenge. Herein, we proposed a heterostructure‐induced‐strategy to optimize the metal‐support interaction (MSI) and the EWS activity of Ru‐Ni3N/NiO. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations firstly predicted that the Ni3N/NiO‐heterostructures can improve the structural stability, electronic distributions, and orbital coupling of Ru‐Ni3N/NiO compared to Ru‐Ni3N and Ru‐NiO, which accordingly decreases energy barriers and increases the electroactivity for EWS. As a proof‐of‐concept, the Ru‐Ni3N/NiO catalyst with a 2D Ni3N/NiO‐heterostructures nanosheet array, uniformly dispersed Ru nanoparticles, and strong MSI, was successfully constructed in the experiment, which exhibited excellent HER and OER activity with overpotentials of 190 mV and 385 mV at 1000 mA cm−2, respectively. Furthermore, the Ru‐Ni3N/NiO‐based EWS device can realize an industrial current density (1000 mA cm−2) at 1.74 V and 1.80 V under alkaline pure water and seawater conditions, respectively. Additionally, it also achieves a high durability of 1000 h (@ 500 mA cm−2) in alkaline pure water. The formation of a Ni3N/NiO heterostructure in Ru‐Ni3N/NiO results in a highly electroactive surface that ensures high electroactivity and alleviates the overbinding effect. The construction of a high‐density triple‐phase interface is achieved, with highly active catalytic sites for electrochemical water splitting, involving hydrogen evolution and oxygen evolution reactions (HER and OER).