Rapid Synthesis of Ruthenium-Copper Nanocomposites as High-Performance Bifunctional Electrocatalysts for Electrochemical Water Splitting.

ABSTRACT

Development of high-performance, low-cost catalysts for electrochemical water splitting is key to sustainable hydrogen production. Herein, ultrafast synthesis of carbon-supported ruthenium-copper (RuCu/C) nanocomposites is reported by magnetic induction heating, where the rapid Joule's heating of RuCl3 and CuCl2 at 200 A for 10 s produces Ru-Cl residues-decorated Ru nanocrystals dispersed on a CuClx scaffold, featuring effective Ru to Cu charge transfer. Among the series, the RuCu/C-3 sample exhibits the best activity in 1 m KOH toward both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), with an overpotential of only -23 and +270 mV to reach 10 mA cm-2, respectively. When RuCu/C-3 is used as bifunctional catalysts for electrochemical water splitting, a low cell voltage of 1.53 V is needed to produce 10 mA cm-2, markedly better than that with a mixture of commercial Pt/C+RuO2 (1.59 V). In situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements show that the bifunctional activity is due to reduction of the Ru-Cl residues at low electrode potentials that enriches metallic Ru and oxidation at high electrode potentials that facilitates the formation of amorphous RuOx. These findings highlight the unique potential of MIH in the ultrafast synthesis of high-performance catalysts for electrochemical water splitting.