Ruthenium/Carbon Nanocomposites for Efficient Hydrogen Electrocatalysis: Impacts of Halide Residues

Journal Article · Sun Jul 27 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · ChemSusChem

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.202500802· OSTI ID:2572889

Yu, Bingzhe; Liu, Qiming; Dun, Chaochao; DuBois, Davida Briana; Hou, Bryan; Pan, Dingjie; Tressel, John; Mayford, Kiley; Jones, Colton; Wang, Xiao; Ge, Qingfeng; Bridges, Frank; Chen, Shaowei

Ruthenium has emerged as a promising substitute for platinum toward the hydrogen evolution/oxidation reaction (HER/HOR). Herein, ruthenium/carbon composites are prepared by magnetic induction heating (300 A, 10 s) of RuCl3, RuBr3 or RuI3 loaded on hollow N-doped carbon cages (HNC). The HNC-RuCl3-300A sample consists of Ru nanoparticles (dia. 1.96 nm) and abundant Cl residues. HNC-RuBr3-300A possesses a larger nanoparticle size (≈19.36 nm) and lower content of Br residues. HNC-RuI3-300A contains only bulk-like Ru agglomerates with a minimal amount of I residues, due to reduced Ru-halide bonding interactions. Among these, HNC-RuCl3-300A exhibits the best HER activity in alkaline media, with a low overpotential of only -26 mV to reach 10 mA cm-2, even outperforming Pt/C, and can be used as the cathode catalyst for anion exchange membrane water electrolyzer (along with commercial RuO2 as the anode catalyst), producing 0.5 A cm- 2 at 1.88 V for up to 100 h, a performance markedly better than that with Pt/C. HNC-RuCl3-300A also exhibits the best HOR activity, with a half-wave potential (+18 mV) even lower than that of Pt/C (+35 mV). These activities are ascribed to the combined contributions of small Ru nanoparticles and Ru-to-halide charge transfer that weaken H adsorption.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22), Scientific User Facilities Division (SC-22.3 )
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 2572889
• Journal Information: ChemSusChem, Journal Name: ChemSusChem Journal Issue: 15 Vol. 18
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English