The Role of Ru in Improving the Activity of Pd toward Hydrogen Evolution and Oxidation Reactions in Alkaline Solutions

Journal Article · Fri Sep 13 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · ACS Catalysis

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.9b01744· OSTI ID:1574897

Qin, Xueping ^[1]; Zhang, Lulu ^[1]; Xu, Gui -Liang ^[2]; Zhu, Shangqian  ^[1]; Wang, Qi  ^[3]; Gu, Meng  ^[3]; Zhang, Xiaoyi ^[4]; Sun, Chengjun ^[4]; Balbuena, Perla B.  ^[5]; Amine, Khalil  ^[6]; Shao, Minhua  ^[1]

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1. The Hong Kong Univ. of Science and Technology, Kowloon (Hong Kong). Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering
2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States). Chemical Sciences and Engineering Div.
3. Southern Univ. of Science and Technology, Shenzhen (China). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
4. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). X-ray Science Div., Advanced Photon Source
5. Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States). Artie McFerrin Dept. of Chemical Engineering
6. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States). Chemical Sciences and Engineering Div.; Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States). Materials Science and Engineering; Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal Univ. (IAU), Dammam (Saudi Arabia). IRMC

Improving the reaction kinetics of hydrogen evolution and oxidation reactions (HER/HOR) in alkaline media is critical to promote the development of alkaline fuel cells and electrolyzers. Here, we prepared Pd₃Ru alloy nanocatalysts with Ru segregated on the surfaces, forming adatoms and clusters. This structure dramatically lowered the overpotential of Pd toward HER in 1 M KOH by 104 mV at 10 mA cm^–2. The HER activity was even higher than that of Pt (6 mV improvement at 10 mA cm^–2). Theoretical simulation results revealed that Ru adatoms/clusters on the surface could weaken the hydrogen-binding energy and promote the OH adsorption, consequently lowering the reaction barrier of the rate-determining step in HER. Here, our findings are of significance for clarifying the role of Ru in bimetallic catalysts and rational design of more active catalysts for HER/HOR.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-06CH11357
• OSTI ID: 1574897
• Journal Information: ACS Catalysis, Vol. 9, Issue 10; ISSN 2155-5435
• Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
alkaline fuel cell
density functional theory calculations
hydrogen evolution reaction
hydrogen oxidation reaction
palladium
ruthenium