Anchoring Ru nanoparticles on Ti3C2Tx for accelerated alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction: The effect of electronic metal-support interaction

Electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in the alkaline media is a promising strategy for energy conversion. Nevertheless, the sluggish kinetics of alkaline HER hinders its commercial application. Electronic metal-support interaction (EMSI) is an efficient approach to regulate the electronic state of active sites and enhance the electrocatalytic HER performance. Hence, we demonstrate an efficient alkaline HER catalyst comprising Ruthenium nanoparticles (Ru NPs) homogeneously anchored on Ti3C2Tx (Ru-Ti3C2Tx), resulting in the formation of EMSI effect between Ru and Ti3C2Tx. Spectroscopy characterizations and theoretical calculations demonstrate that EMSI facilitated the charge transfer from Ru NPs to Ti3C2Tx. The regulation of local electron density on Ru NPs directly influenced hydrogen adsorption Gibbs free energy (ΔGH*), which optimized the adsorption of hydrogen intermediates (H*) on Ru NPs and promoted the formation of H2 molecules. Therefore, the obtained 5 % Ru-Ti3C2Tx catalyst displayed an outstanding HER performance with the overpotential of 46 mV and 60 mV at 10 and 200 mA·cm−2 in 1.0 M KOH, respectively. Furthermore, the cathode presented excellent stability during 20 h long-term measurements. This study presents some recommendations and guidance for constructing Ru-based catalysts to accelerate HER kinetics in alkaline media.