Atomic interface engineering: Strawberry-like RuO2/C hybrids for efficient hydrogen evolution from ammonia borane and water

Efficient hydrogen production plays a key role in establishing hydrogen economy in the current world. In this study, we fabricated ultrafine RuO2 nanoparticles on carbon black to form a strawberry-like RuO2/C hybrid, using by a solid-phase grinding and subsequent low-temperature annealing. The synthesized hybrid displays very low reaction activation energy (28.5 KJ mol−1) for hydrogen evolution from ammonia borane. In case of hydrogen evolution from alkaline water, it also exhibits a remarkably improved electrocatalytic activity than a commercial Pt/C, with an ultra-low overpotential of 8 mV (at 10 mA cm−2). For the above bifunctional catalyst, the formed C–Ru–C bonds between the ruthenium oxide and carbon result in the ultrahigh activity of the hybrid, as evidenced by DFT results. This work offers a guideline to synthesize efficient metal-based (Ru, Pd, Rh, Ir, Au, etc.) catalysts with smart structures for catalysis.