Bifunctional Ultrathin RhRu 0.5 -Alloy Nanowire Electrocatalysts for Hydrazine-Assisted Water Splitting

• Published in: Advanced materials (Weinheim) 2023-06, Vol.35 (23), p.e2301533
• Main Authors: Fu, Xiaoyang, Cheng, Dongfang, Wan, Chengzhang, Kumari, Simran, Zhang, Hongtu, Zhang, Ao, Huyan, Huaixun, Zhou, Jingxuan, Ren, Huaying, Wang, Sibo, Zhao, Zipeng, Zhao, Xun, Chen, Jun, Pan, Xiaoqing, Sautet, Philippe, Huang, Yu, Duan, Xiangfeng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0935-9648; 1521-4095
• DOI: 10.1002/adma.202301533

Hydrazine-assisted water electrolysis offers a feasible path for low-voltage green hydrogen production. Herein, the design and synthesis of ultrathin RhRu -alloy wavy nanowires as bifunctional electrocatalysts for both the anodic hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR) and the cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is reported. It is shown that the RhRu -alloy wavy nanowires can achieve complete electrooxidation of hydrazine with a low overpotential and high mass activity, as well as improved performance for the HER. The resulting RhRu bifunctional electrocatalysts enable, high performance hydrazine-assisted water electrolysis delivering a current density of 100 mA cm at an ultralow cell voltage of 54 mV and a high current density of 853 mA cm at a cell voltage of 0.6 V. The RhRu  electrocatalysts further demonstrate a stable operation at a high current density of 100 mA cm for 80 hours of testing period with little irreversible degradation. The overall performance greatly exceeds that of the previously reported hydrazine-assisted water electrolyzers, offering a pathway for efficiently converting hazardous hydrazine into molecular hydrogen.