Indexed by: Research Article

First Author: Liu,Xuan

Correspondence Author: Li,Qing

Co-author: Han, Jiantao,Wang, Tanyuan,Liu, Jinjia,Shi, Hao,Li, Shenzhou,Liang, Jiashun,Zhang, Siyang

Journal: Small

Affiliation of Author(s): 华中科技大学

Place of Publication: 德国

Document Type: Article

Volume: 18

Issue: 32

Page Number: 2202496

ISSN No.: 1613-6829

Key Words: Core@Shell Structures; Electrocatalysis; Hydrogen Evolution Reaction; Nanotubes; Ru-based Catalysts

DOI number: 10.1002/smll.202202496

Date of Publication: 2022-07-15

Impact Factor: 13.0

Abstract: The development of highly efficient and durable water electrolysis catalysts plays an important role in the large-scale applications of hydrogen energy. In this work, protrusion-rich Cu@NiRu core@shell nanotubes are prepared by a facile wet chemistry method and used for catalyzing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in an alkaline environment. The protrusion-like RuNi alloy shells with accessible channels and abundant defects possess a large surface area and can optimize the surface electronic structure through the electron transfer from Ni to Ru. Moreover, the unique 1D hollow structure can effectively stabilize RuNi alloy shell through preventing the aggregation of nanoparticles. The synthesized catalyst can achieve a current density of 10 mA cm−2 in 1.0 m KOH with an overpotential of only 22 mV and show excellent stability after 5000 cycles, which is superior to most reported Ru-based catalysts. Density functional theory calculations illustrate that the weakened hydrogen adsorption on Ru sites induced by the alloying with Ni and active electron transfer between Ru and Ni/Cu are the keys to the much improved HER activity.