Abstract
Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) was used to produce new Ru-based thin catalytic films. The surface molecular structure of the films was examined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). To determine the electro- and photoelectrochemical properties, the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) process was investigated by linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) at pH = 13.6. It was found that Ru atoms were mainly in the metallic state (Ru0) in the as-deposited films, whereas after the electrochemical stabilization, higher oxidation states, mainly Ru+4 (RuO2), were formed. The stabilized films exhibited high catalytic activity in OER—for the electrochemical process, the onset and η10 overpotentials were approx. 220 and 350 mV, respectively, while for the photoelectrochemical process, the pure photocurrent density of about 160 mA/cm2 mg was achieved at 1.6 V (vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)). The plasma-deposited RuOX catalyst appears to be an interesting candidate for photoanode material for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting.
Highlights
Ruthenium (Ru)—in both its oxidized, especially RuO2 (Ru+4 ), and metallic (Ru0 ) forms—has been widely studied and applied as a heterogeneous catalyst and electrocatalyst [1,2]
A lot of attention has been paid to the use of such catalysts in the reactions occurring in fuel cells [3,4] as well as in the photo- [5,6], electro- [7,8,9,10], and photoelectro-splitting of water [11,12]
Considering the above, in the present paper, we have focused our attention on the possibilities of applying these new catalytic systems, which are plasma-deposited Ru-based films, in the oxygen evolution reaction, both in the electrochemical and photoelectrochemical processes
Summary
Ruthenium (Ru)—in both its oxidized, especially RuO2 (Ru+4 ), and metallic (Ru0 ) forms—has been widely studied and applied as a heterogeneous catalyst and electrocatalyst [1,2]. In the water splitting processes, Ru-based materials have proven to be one of the most efficient catalysts in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) [13]. Jirkovský et al [15] showed that nanocrystalline RuO2 particles prepared by the sol-gel method exhibited increasing activity towards water oxidation with decreasing particle size (from 40 to 15 nm). The high activity of RuO2 nanoparticles (~6 nm) for OER was confirmed by Lee et al [16]. In this case, the study showed high stability of this catalytic form, which can serve as a benchmark in the development of active OER catalysts for electrolyzers, metal-air batteries, and photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting applications. It was found that the electrocatalytic activity of the RuO2 layer decreased with
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