Subnanometric Ru clusters with upshifted D band center improve performance for alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction

Qi Hu, Keru Gao, Xiaodeng Wang, Hongju Zheng, Jianyong Cao, Lingren Mi, Qihua Huo, Hengpan Yang, Jianhong Liu and Chuanxin He ()
Additional contact information
Qi Hu: Shenzhen University, Shenzhen
Keru Gao: Shenzhen University, Shenzhen
Xiaodeng Wang: Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences
Hongju Zheng: Shenzhen University, Shenzhen
Jianyong Cao: Shenzhen University, Shenzhen
Lingren Mi: Shenzhen University, Shenzhen
Qihua Huo: Shenzhen University, Shenzhen
Hengpan Yang: Shenzhen University, Shenzhen
Jianhong Liu: Shenzhen University, Shenzhen
Chuanxin He: Shenzhen University, Shenzhen

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Subnanometric metal clusters usually have unique electronic structures and may display electrocatalytic performance distinctive from single atoms (SAs) and larger nanoparticles (NPs). However, the electrocatalytic performance of clusters, especially the size-activity relationship at the sub-nanoscale, is largely unexplored. Here, we synthesize a series of Ru nanocrystals from single atoms, subnanometric clusters to larger nanoparticles, aiming at investigating the size-dependent activity of hydrogen evolution in alkaline media. It is found that the d band center of Ru downshifts in a nearly linear relationship with the increase of diameter, and the subnanometric Ru clusters with d band center closer to Femi level display a stronger water dissociation ability and thus superior hydrogen evolution activity than SAs and larger nanoparticles. Benefiting from the high metal utilization and strong water dissociation ability, the Ru clusters manifest an ultrahigh turnover frequency of 43.3 s−1 at the overpotential of 100 mV, 36.1-fold larger than the commercial Pt/C.

Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31660-2 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-31660-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31660-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().