Atomically Confined Ru Sites in Octahedral Co<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> for High‐Efficiency Hydrazine Oxidation
Yanjie Zhai, Chengkai Jin, Qing Xia, Wenkai Han, Jie Wu, Xunhua Zhao, Xiao Zhang
Abstract
Abstract Hydrazine‐assisted water electrolyzer is a promising energy‐efficient alternative to conventional water electrolyzer, offering an appealing path for sustainable hydrogen (H 2 ) production with reduced energy consumption. However, such electrolyzer is presently impeded by lacking an efficient catalyst to accelerate the kinetics of pivotal half‐reaction, that is, hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR). Herein, a ruthenium (Ru) single‐atom on an octahedral cobalt oxide (Co 3 O 4 ) substrate (Ru‐Co 3 O 4 ) catalyst, guided by theoretical calculations is developed. Those lattice‐confined Ru sites within octahedral structure of spinel Co 3 O 4 effectively lower the energy barrier required for the formation of N 2 H 2 * intermediate and desorption of H * species in HzOR. As a result, the Ru‐Co 3 O 4 catalyst achieves superior HzOR performance with a low potential of −0.024 V versus (vs.)reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) at 100 mA cm −2 and remarkable stability for over 200 h at 200 mA cm −2 . Importantly, a modular H 2 production achieves an output of 0.48 kWh electricity per m 3 H 2 by decoupling and pairing the HzOR and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) half‐reaction with a Zinc (Zn) redox reservoir. The work represents a significant advancement in the field, offering substantial flexibility for on‐demand H 2 production and energy output.