Subnano Ruthenium Species Anchored on Tin Dioxide Surface for Efficient Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution Reaction
Wujie Dong, Yajing Zhang, Jie Xu, Junwen Yin, Shuying Nong, Chenlong Dong, Zichao Liu, Bowei Dong, Limin Liu, Rui Si, Mingyang Chen, Jun Luo, Fuqiang Huang
Abstract
Single-atom catalysts with unique electronic structures are drawing increasing attention as compared with nano-catalysts. However, subnano-catalysts, falling between the two categories, may match the demands of catalytic reactions better due to their tunable electronic structure, but they have rarely been studied. Here, we report a subnano-ruthenium species anchored on nano-SnO2 ([email protected]2). Although rutile SnO2 and RuO2 are isostructural and tend to form a spinodal structure in bulk materials, the [email protected]2 nano-structure is successfully prepared by our newly developed micro-etching technique. The optimized sample displays high activity for alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction with low overpotential and flat Tafel slope, superior to commercial Pt/C (20 wt%), while density functional theory investigations on the hydrogen-binding energy and Gibbs free energy are consistent with these results. The inherent design and synthesis strategies reported herein may open a new avenue for further catalyst development.