Manipulating the Rectifying Contact between Ultrafine Ru Nanoclusters and N-Doped Carbon Nanofibers for High-Efficiency pH-Universal Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution |
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Authors: | Guangyao Zhou Sike Zhang Yufeng Zhu Jing Li Kang Sun Huan Pang Mingyi Zhang Yawen Tang Lin Xu |
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Affiliation: | 1. College of Science, Jinling Institute of Technology, Nanjing, 211169 P. R. China;2. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of New Power Batteries, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Centre of Biomedical Functional Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023 P. R. China;3. Institute of Chemical Industry of Forest Products, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Nanjing, 210042 P. R. China;4. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225009 P. R. China;5. Key Laboratory for Photonic and Electronic Bandgap Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Harbin Normal University, Harbin, 150025 P. R. China |
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Abstract: | The rational design of ingenious strategies to boost the intrinsic activity and stability of ruthenium (Ru) is of great importance for the substantial progression of water electrolysis technology. Based on Mott–Schottky effect, electronic regulation within a metal/semiconductor hybrid electrocatalyst represents a versatile strategy to boost the electrochemical performance. Herein, a typical Mott–Schottky hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalyst composed of uniform ultrafine Ru nanoclusters in situ anchored on N-doped carbon nanofibers (abbreviated as Ru@N-CNFs hereafter) through a feasible and scalable “phenolic resin-bridged” strategy is reported. Both spectroscopy analyses and density functional theory calculations manifest that such rectifying contact can induce the spontaneous electron transfer from Ru to N-doped carbon nanofibers to generate a built-in electric field, thus enormously promoting the charge transfer efficiency and HER intrinsic activity. Moreover, the seamless immobilization of Ru nanoclusters on the substrate can prevent the active sites from unfavorable migration, coarsening, and detachment, rendering the excellent structural stability. Consequently, the well-designed Ru@N-CNFs afford prominent pH-universal HER performances with small overpotentials of 16 and 17 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and low Tafel slopes of 31.8 and 28.5 mV dec−1 in acidic and alkaline electrolytes, respectively, which are superior to the state-of-the-art commercial Pt/C and Ru/C benchmarks. |
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Keywords: | hydrogen evolution reaction rectifying contact Ru nanoclusters Schottky electrocatalysts wide pH range |
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