Cited by 629Electrocatalysts for Energy ConversionHydrogen Storage and MaterialsFuel Cells and Related Materials

Ruthenium atomically dispersed in carbon outperforms platinum toward hydrogen evolution in alkaline media

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Lu, Bingzhang, Guo, Lin, Wu, Feng, Peng, Yi, Lu, Jia En, Smart, Tyler J., Wang, Nan, Finfrock, Y. Zou +6 more·2019·Nature Communications

Abstract

Hydrogen evolution reaction is an important process in electrochemical energy technologies. Herein, ruthenium and nitrogen codoped carbon nanowires are prepared as effective hydrogen evolution catalysts. The catalytic performance is markedly better than that of commercial platinum catalyst, with an overpotential of only −12 mV to reach the current density of 10 mV cm -2 in 1 M KOH and −47 mV in 0.1 M KOH. Comparisons with control experiments suggest that the remarkable activity is mainly ascribed to individual ruthenium atoms embedded within the carbon matrix, with minimal contributions from ruthenium nanoparticles. Consistent results are obtained in first-principles calculations, where RuC x N y moieties are found to show a much lower hydrogen binding energy than ruthenium nanoparticles, and a lower kinetic barrier for water dissociation than platinum. Among these, RuC 2 N 2 stands out as the most active catalytic center, where both ruthenium and adjacent carbon atoms are the possible active sites.

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Crossref · 10.1038/s41467-019-08419-3

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  • The dramatically enhanced activity from NCAG/Ru-1 to NCAG/Ru-3 signifies increasingly dominant contributions of the Ru single atom sites to the HER activity, as compared to the Ru nanoclusters.

    “The dramatically enhanced activity from NCAG/Ru-1 to NCAG/ Ru-3 signifies the increasingly dominant contributions of the Ru single atom sites to the HER activity, as compared to the Ru nanoclusters [42,53].”

    From Atomically dispersed ruthenium in carbon aerogels as effective catalysts for pH-universal hydrogen evolution reaction (2022) · cites this paper as [42]

    In Results, ‘Electrocatalytic activity toward HER’ (page unavailable), the paper reports that single-atom Ru sites dominated HER activity while Ru nanoparticles made only minor contributions. It studies Ru-NC samples, however, not NCAG/Ru-1 through NCAG/Ru-3, and does not establish an increasingly dominant single-atom contribution across that series. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Ru atomically dispersed within a carbon matrix has HER performance markedly better than nanoparticle counterparts.

    “Among these, Ru atomically dispersed within a carbon matrix represents a unique system, with an HER performance markedly better than the nanoparticle counterparts [20,42].”
  • Previous studies have shown that the rate-determining step in alkaline HER is H2O dissociation (Volmer reaction).

    “Previous studies have shown that the rate-determining step (RDS) in alkaline HER is H2O dissociation (Volmer reaction) [34,42].”

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Authors
Lu, B., Guo, L., Wu, F., Peng, Y., Lu, J. E., Smart, T. J., Wang, N., Finfrock, Y. Z., Morris, D., Zhang, P., Li, N., Gao, P., Ping, Y., & Chen, S.
Affiliations
  • University of California, Santa Cruz (US)
  • South China University of Technology (CN)
  • Argonne National Laboratory (US)
  • Dalhousie University (CA)
  • Peking University (CN)
Corresponding author
  • Ping, Yuan
  • Chen, Shaowei
Venue
Nature Communications
Published
2019-02-07
Volume
10
Issue
1
Pages
631-631
ISSN
2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2914544678
Cited by
629
References
3
Citations by year
2026: 42 · 2025: 79 · 2024: 76 · 2023: 94 · 2022: 115 · 2021: 94 · 2020: 91 · 2019: 38
FWCI
17.98
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (ACI-1 548 562, 1548562, DE-AC02–06CH11357, 1760260, 1848841, DE-SC0012704, 1710408)
  • U.S. Department of Energy (DE‐ AC02‐06CH11357, Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357., DE‐SC0012704, AC02‐06CH11357, 1548562, Contract No: DESC0012704, No. DE-SC0012704, SC0012704., ACI-1548562, 06CH11357, No. DE-AC02-06CH11357, DE-AC02-)
  • Canadian Light Source (DE-AC02-06CH11357)
  • Tianjin University of Technology
  • Tianjin University
  • Office of Science (Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357, AC02‐06CH11357, DE-SC-0012704, No. DE-SC0012704, ACI-1548562, DE-AC02, No. DE-AC02-06CH11357., Contract No. DE-SC0012704, 06CH11357, SC0012704, DE-AC02-06CH11357)
  • Division of Materials Research (DE-AC02-06CH11357, 1760260, ACI-1548562, DMR-1760260)
  • Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (1848841, CBET-1848841)
  • Division of Chemistry (1710408, CHE-1710408, ACI-1548562)
  • Argonne National Laboratory (DE- AC02-06-CH11357, DE-AC02, AC02–06CH11357, DE-SC0012704, No. DE-AC02-06CH11357, 06CH11357, Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.)
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory (SC0012704, No. DE-SC0012704, DE- SC0012704, Contract No. DE-SC0012704, DE-AC-02-06CH11357)
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (DE-SC0012704, DE-AC02-06CH11357, ACI-1548562)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
  • Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Hydrogen Storage and Materials
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Fuel Cells and Related Materials
Keywords
hydrogen evolution reaction, ruthenium, atomically dispersed metals, nitrogen-doped carbon, carbon nanowires, platinum-free catalysts, alkaline solution, electrocatalysis, hydrogen binding energy, water dissociation, active site, first-principles calculations

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