TY - JOUR
T1 - A chemical etching strategy to improve and stabilize RuO2-based nanoassemblies for acidic oxygen evolution
AU - Yao, Qing
AU - Huang, Bolong
AU - Xu, Yong
AU - Li, Leigang
AU - Shao, Qi
AU - Huang, Xiaoqing
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, China (grant IDs: 2016YFA0204100, 2017YFA0208200), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant IDs: 21571135, 51802206), Young Thousand Talented Program, Jiangsu Province Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, China (grant ID: BK20170003), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (grant ID: BK20180846), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, China (PAPD), and the start-up funding from Xiamen University.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - RuO2-based catalysts have been widely used for acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), a key half reaction of overall water splitting. However, RuO2 suffers from the drawbacks of inferior OER performance in acidic conditions due to its poor stability. We here demonstrate a chemical etching strategy for fabricating a Ru/Fe oxide towards OER, in which Fe species in the pristine Ru/Fe nanoassemblies (P-Ru/Fe NAs) are partially etched by nitric acid (HNO3), leading to the generation of abundant vacancies in the etched Ru/Fe oxide nanoassemblies (E-Ru/Fe ONAs). Owing to the etching of Fe, the local electron density of the lattice O associated with Ru atoms is significantly increased, resulting in the suppression of H2O adsorption on lattice O. On the other hand, the O vacancies in the E-Ru/Fe ONAs can promote the H2O adsorption on metal atoms (i.e., Ru and Fe). Consequently, the optimized E-Ru/Fe ONAs exhibit a superior OER activity with a low overpotential of 238 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in 0.5 M H2SO4, and an enhanced stability with a negligible potential change within 9 h chronopotentiometry test. Theoretical calculations demonstrate that the defective surface of E-Ru/Fe ONA can not only enhance the stability via surface structural modulation, but also optimize the binding strength of the intermediates for promoting OER activity. This work provides an efficient strategy for fabricating active and stable RuO2-based catalysts for OER, which may deepen the research in surface engineering of catalysts.
AB - RuO2-based catalysts have been widely used for acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), a key half reaction of overall water splitting. However, RuO2 suffers from the drawbacks of inferior OER performance in acidic conditions due to its poor stability. We here demonstrate a chemical etching strategy for fabricating a Ru/Fe oxide towards OER, in which Fe species in the pristine Ru/Fe nanoassemblies (P-Ru/Fe NAs) are partially etched by nitric acid (HNO3), leading to the generation of abundant vacancies in the etched Ru/Fe oxide nanoassemblies (E-Ru/Fe ONAs). Owing to the etching of Fe, the local electron density of the lattice O associated with Ru atoms is significantly increased, resulting in the suppression of H2O adsorption on lattice O. On the other hand, the O vacancies in the E-Ru/Fe ONAs can promote the H2O adsorption on metal atoms (i.e., Ru and Fe). Consequently, the optimized E-Ru/Fe ONAs exhibit a superior OER activity with a low overpotential of 238 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in 0.5 M H2SO4, and an enhanced stability with a negligible potential change within 9 h chronopotentiometry test. Theoretical calculations demonstrate that the defective surface of E-Ru/Fe ONA can not only enhance the stability via surface structural modulation, but also optimize the binding strength of the intermediates for promoting OER activity. This work provides an efficient strategy for fabricating active and stable RuO2-based catalysts for OER, which may deepen the research in surface engineering of catalysts.
KW - Acidic
KW - Defect
KW - Oxygen Evolution Reaction
KW - Ruthenium
KW - Vacancy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85101680318&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.nanoen.2021.105909
DO - 10.1016/j.nanoen.2021.105909
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85101680318
SN - 2211-2855
VL - 84
JO - Nano Energy
JF - Nano Energy
M1 - 105909
ER -
