Synergistic Ru-Ni-Cu interface for stable hydrogen evolution on 1% Ru-Ni@Cu alloy grown directly on carbon paper electrode

Abstract

A [email protected] alloy catalyst with a well-connected two-phase or three-phase contact interface is fabricated as an alternative to a Pt-based catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in water electrolysis in this study. For optimum bonding and adhesion stability, the alloy particles are grown directly on carbon paper (CP) by the hydrothermal method. The alloy particles are composed of central Cu cores, Ni nests wrapped around Cu core, and small (2.0 nm) Ru nanoparticles embedded at the Ni nests. The Ni surface readily adsorbs water, the high conductivity of Cu increases the electron density of the electrode surface to facilitate water splitting, and the Ru surface adsorbs more H+ ions, thus promoting hydrogen production in the [email protected] alloy. Eventually, despite the use of only 1.0 wt% Ru, the 1% [email protected]/CP electrode exhibits a low overpotential of −0.15 V (η = 246 mV and 87.08 mV dec−1) at 100 mA cm−2 in a 1.0 M KOH electrolyte, similarly to the −0.1 V overpotential of the 100% Pt/CP electrode. The electrode maintains excellent catalytic activity without deterioration for 10 days with a Faraday efficiency of 96.89% (50 h) HER and 3000th LSV cycles.