Defective RuO2/TiO2 nano-heterostructure advances hydrogen production by electrochemical water splitting

Abstract

• DFT calculations predicts the defective RuO 2 /TiO 2 nano-heterointerface effect on water splitting kinetics. • For D-RuO 2 /TiO 2 nano-heterostructures, TiO 2 is in situ growth on Ti mesh with defective RuO 2 NPs. • Extensive defects on D-RuO 2 /TiO 2 produce more active sites, favorable to HER and OER processes. • Electrolyzers with D-RuO 2 /TiO 2/ TM electrodes own outstanding water splitting performance. Exploring highly active and stable catalysts toward hydrogen evolution reactions and oxygen evolution reactions (HER/OER) is the key for electrochemical water splitting. Herein, density functional theory (DFT) calculation results forecast that the defect-rich RuO 2 and TiO 2 nano-heterostructures can effectively adjust the electron structure of RuO 2 , and accelerate the water electrocatalysis, consequently reinforcing the intrinsic activity of the catalyst. Experimentally, to form an integrated nano-heterostructure, a facile approach is designed for in situ fabrication of TiO 2 on Ti mesh (TM), simultaneously combined with defective RuO 2 (D-RuO 2 ) nanoparticles. Benefiting from the rich active sites, the D-RuO 2 /TiO 2 /TM nano-heterostructure formed provides current densities of 50 mA/cm 2 at 71 mV for HER and 10 mA/cm 2 at 296 mV for OER in alkaline media. For overall water splitting, the electrolyzer assembled with D-RuO 2 /TiO 2 /TM electrode can reach 10 mA/cm 2 with a voltage of only 1.59 V. Moreover, under a fixed current density, such an electrolyzer also achieves an outstanding stability.