Fast and Durable Alkaline Hydrogen Oxidation Reaction at the Electron‐Deficient Ruthenium–Ruthenium Oxide Interface
Xiaoyu Zhang, Lixue Xia, Guoqiang Zhao, Bingxing Zhang, Yaping Chen, Jian Chen, Mingxia Gao, Yinzhu Jiang, Yongfeng Liu, Hongge Pan, Wenping Sun
Abstract
Abstract The slow hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) kinetics under alkaline conditions remain a critical challenge for the practical application of alkaline exchange membrane fuel cells. Herein, Ru/RuO 2 in‐plane heterostructures are designed with abundant active Ru–RuO 2 interface domains as efficient electrocatalysts for the HOR in alkaline media. The experimental and theoretical results demonstrate that interfacial Ru and RuO 2 domains at Ru–RuO 2 interfaces are the optimal H and OH adsorption sites, respectively, endowing the well‐defined Ru(100)/RuO 2 (200) interface as the preferential region for fast alkaline hydrogen electrocatalysis. More importantly, the metallic Ru domains become electron deficient due to the strong interaction with RuO 2 domains and show substantially improved inoxidizability, which is vital to maintain durable HOR electrocatalytic activity. The optimal Ru/RuO 2 heterostructured electrocatalyst exhibits impressive alkaline HOR activity with an exchange current density of 8.86 mA cm −2 and decent durability. The exceptional electrocatalytic performance of Ru/RuO 2 in‐plane heterostructure can be attributed to the robust and multifunctional Ru–RuO 2 interfaces endowed by the unique metal–metal oxide domains.