Synergistic effect of dual active sites over Ru/α-MoC for accelerating alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Developing alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction catalysts with ultra-low overpotential remains a significant challenge. In this paper, a three-dimensional porous Ru/α-MoC has been developed, which features the dual active sites of α-MoC and Ru. The coexistence of ultrafine Ru nanoparticles and Ru single atoms in Ru/α-MoC system is demonstrated by multiple structural characterizations. The fabricated Ru/α-MoC exhibits excellent alkaline HER activity with a low overpotential 25 mV at 10 mA cm−2, outperforming commercial 20% Pt/C (45 mV), and robust electrocatalytic stability at an industrial-scale current density of 400 mA cm−2. Particularly, the turnover frequency value reaches 39.2 s−1 at the overpotential of 100 mV. Experiments and theory investigations demonstrate the electron redistribution at the interface of α-MoC and Ru. The synergistic effect of dual active sites enables the easy cleavage of H-OH bond and the optimal H adsorption energy simultaneously. This work opens up a feasible way to rationally design high-efficient electrocatalysts with dual active sites for typical multistep reactions.