Highly-dispersed ruthenium precursors via a self-assembly-assisted synthesis of uniform ruthenium nanoparticles for superior hydrogen evolution reaction

Xingyan Liu; Guangmei Jiang; Yuwei Tan; Shuang Luo; Mengmeng Xu; Yiming Jia; Peng Lu; Youzhou He

doi:10.1039/d0ra01402h

Highly-dispersed ruthenium precursors via a self-assembly-assisted synthesis of uniform ruthenium nanoparticles for superior hydrogen evolution reaction

RSC Adv. 2020 Apr 7;10(24):14313-14316. doi: 10.1039/d0ra01402h. eCollection 2020 Apr 6.

Authors

Xingyan Liu¹, Guangmei Jiang¹, Yuwei Tan¹, Shuang Luo¹, Mengmeng Xu¹, Yiming Jia², Peng Lu¹, Youzhou He¹

Affiliations

¹ Chongqing Key Laboratory of Catalysis and New Environmental Materials, College of Environment and Resources, Chongqing Technology and Business University Chongqing 400067 China xyliuctbu@126.com yzhectbu@163.com.
² Department of Chemistry "G. Ciamician", University of Bologna Ravenna Campus 48121 Ravenna Italy.

Abstract

For the first time, highly-dispersed ruthenium precursors via a hydrogen-bond-driven melamine-cyanuric acid supramolecular complex (denoted CAM) self-assembly-assisted synthesis of uniform ruthenium nanoparticles with superior HER performance under both acidic and alkaline conditions are reported. Electrochemical tests reveal that when the current density is -10 mA cm^-2, the optimal Ru/CNO electrocatalyst could express low overpotentials of -18 mV and -46 mV, low Tafel slopes of 46 mV dec^-1 and 100 mV dec^-1, in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ and 1.0 M KOH, respectively. The remarkable HER performance could be attributed to uniform ruthenium with the aid of highly dispersed ruthenium precursors (Ru-CAM) and subsequent annealing results in uniform ruthenium nanoparticles.