Engineering VO-Ti ensemble to boost the activity of Ru towards water dissociation for catalytic hydrogen generation

High activity catalysts used for eliminating the energy barrier in water breaking-up are of great significance for accelerating those reactions retarded by water molecules dissociation. In this work, an oxygen vacancy (VO)-Ti ensemble engineering on Ru catalyst was established to boost the catalytic activity toward water dissociation. The VO in VO-Ti ensemble plays as electron promoter to transfers electrons to surface Ru atoms. The rich electron state of Ru boosts the catalytic activity toward water dissociation. As an experimental verification, the turnover frequency of 1.5-RTVO-4 in ammonia borane hydrolysis reaches up to 1370 min−1 (9710 min−1 depend on the dispersion of Ru), exceeding the benchmark value set up by Ru-based catalysts. This research provides a novel electronic tuning strategy for VO as imaginary atom via electron promoter effect to enhance the intrinsic catalytic activity of metal catalysts toward inert molecule dissociation in the next generation energy chemistry field.