Scientists develop sub-5 nm Ru-based alloy catalysts for efficient water splitting

A research team led by Professor Liang Changhao of the HEFEI Institute of Physical Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a new method for synthesizing carbon nanotube (CNT)-supported intermetallic ram (M=Cu, RH, and PD) synthesis. Their findings are published in Advanced Science.

Sub-5 nm RU-based alloys are attracting attention as promising electrochemical catalysts for water separation. However, their synthesis is constrained by thermodynamic immiscibility, which limits the development of universally applicable preparation methods.

In this study, the researchers adopted nanosecond laser ultrafast alloy (LUCA) to overcome the confusing permeability transition barrier in the synthesis of CNT-supported sub-5 nm bimetallic ram alloy NPs.

Among the synthesized catalysts, RU95CU5/CNT exhibited excellent electrocatalytic performance in the alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), achieving a taffel gradient of just 17 mV and a 28.4 mV DEC-1 at 10 mA cm-2.

Furthermore, the catalyst exhibited remarkable stability and maintained performance beyond 5,000 periodic voltammetric cycles. The Ru95Cu5/CNTS catalyst significantly outperformed Luca-like RU86RH14/CNTS, RU89PD11/CNTS, RU, and Cu NP catalysts, and the commercial benchmark 20% PT/C catalyst.

Additionally, it surpassed the performance of other mainstream RU-based catalysts, including wet chemical cinecid RURH particles (25 mV radicality, 47.5 mV Dec-1 taffel gradient), and RUCU/CNT synthesized via flashjoule heating (39 mV overpotential).

Non-noble metal Cu alloys with various atomic ratios of RUCU alloys are attractive due to the low cost of CU and cost-effective synthesis for large-scale practical applications.

This study highlights Luca’s great potential to screen her new class of catalysts.