N-Doped Carbon Shells Encapsulated Ru-Ni Nanoalloys for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction.

Abstract

The alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is of great significance for the large-scale green H2 production. Currently, pressing challenges in the fabrication of cost-effective HER electrocatalysts are related to their sluggish water dissociation kinetics. Herein, a facile strategy to accelerate the desorption of HER intermediates and water dissociation is proposed. RuNi nanoalloy confined within N-doped carbon shells (Ru7 Ni3 @NC/C) with optimized Ru/Ni ratio and the dicyandiamide dosage was prepared. It displays an overpotential (η10 ) of 16 mV, Tafel slope of 29.9 mV dec-1 , and long-term stability over 10 000 cycles. The decent HER performance on Ru7 Ni3 @NC/C stems from the core-shell structure that is favoring the exposure of dispersed active sites, and the synergistic effect to promote water capture and dissociation. This work provides insight into the relationship between the HER performance and the electrochemical behavior of the intermediate adsorbed state, and paves an avenue toward rational design efficient electrocatalysts for HER.