Electrochemically assisted synthesis of ultra-small Ru@IrOx core-shell nanoparticles for water splitting electro-catalysis

Carbon-free use of hydrogen as a clean fuel and a viable energy storage medium has been impeded by the efficiency of water electrolysis, which in turn, is limited by the bottleneck anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The discovery of potentially efficient catalysts for OER is a key factor to fac...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Electrochimica acta 2020-05, Vol.341, p.136058, Article 136058
Main Authors: Seow, Justin Zhu Yeow, Nguyen, Tam D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bimetallic nanocatalysts
Catalysis
Catalysts
Chemical synthesis
Clean energy
Clean fuels
Core-shell nanoparticles
Core-shell particles
Electro-catalysis
Electrochemical synthesis
Electrolysis
Electrolytes
Energy storage
Nanoparticles
Noble metals
Oxidation
Oxygen evolution reaction
Oxygen evolution reactions
Performance degradation
Reaction kinetics
Ruthenium
Water splitting
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Summary:Carbon-free use of hydrogen as a clean fuel and a viable energy storage medium has been impeded by the efficiency of water electrolysis, which in turn, is limited by the bottleneck anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The discovery of potentially efficient catalysts for OER is a key factor to facilitate the overall kinetics of water splitting, in which, noble metals such as Ru and Ir are still the conventional benchmarks. However, besides the high cost, such catalysts are also suffered from rapid performance degradation under OER conditions, particularly for Ru. In this work, Ru@IrOx core-shell nanoparticles (NPs) are successfully obtained through a wet chemical synthesis with the assistance of electro-oxidation. The NPs possess an ultra-small size of about 3.4 nm, achieving high specific OER activities of 51.99 μA/cm2oxide and 3.44 μA/cm2oxide as well as mass activities of 44.85 A/goxide and 3.03 A/goxide at overpotential of 250 mV (vs. RHE) in 0.1 M HClO4 and in 0.1 M KOH respectively. Furthermore, as-synthesized Ru@IrOx core-shell NPs are also proven to have excellent catalytic stability in both electrolytes, exhibiting great potential for application in both acidic and alkaline water electrolyzers. [Display omitted] •Ru@IrOx core-shell NPs are prepared by an electrochemically assisted synthetic method.•Ru@IrOx NPs indicate an ultra-small particle size of about 3.4 nm.•As-synthesized Ru@IrOx NPs exhibit excellent OER activity and stability in both acidic and alkaline media.
ISSN:0013-4686
1873-3859
DOI:10.1016/j.electacta.2020.136058