High temperature shock synthesis of superfine Ru nanoparticles anchored on TiO2 @nitrogen-doped carbon for pH-universal hydrogen evolution reaction

Due to energy crisis and environmental pollution, it is urgent to develop efficient and cheap catalysts for hydrogen production from water electrolysis. As a cheaper platinum group metal, Ru, a cheaper platinum group metal, is a highly competitive candidate to Pt because of the similar bond energy of M-H. Herein, TiO2 @nitrogen-doped carbon composite supported superfine Ru nanoparticles was synthesized by high temperature shock in a Joule furnace using Ti-MOF support (Ru/TiO2 @NC-J). In the extremely rapid process, MOF was quickly converted into highly conductive nitrogen-doped carbon with tiny TiO2 dispersed in it, and superfine Ru nanoparticles were generated simultaneously in less than 0.5 s. The obtained Ru/TiO2 @NC-J displays wonderful HER performance in the wide pH range. In 1.0 M KOH solution, the overpotential was as low as 11 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and a Tafel slope was 39.2 mV dec−1, which far exceeded the activity of Pt/C and conventional calcined samples as well as most of the recently reported catalysts. The as-developed electrocatalysts also showed excellent stability to accommodate large working current for long term test without obvious activity loss in universal pH range. Experimental investigations suggest that the strong metal-support interaction dominantly facilitate the activity of electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), and stability of Ru/TiO2 @NC-J. This strategy provides a new and super-fast methodology to prepare low-budget and high-performance HER catalysts for practical applications.