Amorphization activated ruthenium-tellurium nanorods for efficient water splitting

Juan Wang; Lili Han; Bolong Huang; Qi Shao; Huolin L. Xin; Xiaoqing Huang

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-13519-1

Amorphization activated ruthenium-tellurium nanorods for efficient water splitting

Juan Wang, Lili Han, Bolong Huang^*, Qi Shao, Huolin L. Xin, Xiaoqing Huang^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

437 Citations (Scopus)

13 Downloads (CityUHK Scholars)

Abstract

Pursuing active and durable water splitting electrocatalysts is of vital significance for solving the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) process in energy supply. Herein, theoretical calculations identify that the local distortion-strain effect in amorphous RuTe₂ system abnormally sensitizes the Te-pπ coupling capability and enhances the electron-transfer of Ru-sites, in which the excellent inter-orbital p-d transfers determine strong electronic activities for boosting OER performance. Thus, a robust electrocatalyst based on amorphous RuTe₂ porous nanorods (PNRs) is successfully fabricated. In the acidic water splitting, a-RuTe₂ PNRs exhibit a superior performance, which only require a cell voltage of 1.52 V to reach a current density of 10 mA cm⁻². Detailed investigations show that the high density of defects combine with oxygen atoms to form RuO_xH_y species, which are conducive to the OER. This work offers valuable insights for constructing robust electrocatalysts based on theoretical calculations guided by rational design and amorphous materials. © The Author(s) 2019.

Original language	English
Article number	5692
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	10
Online published	12 Dec 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13519-1
Publication status	Published - 2019
Externally published	Yes

Funding

We thank the financial supports by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21571135, 2177156), the Early Career Start-up fund (PolyU 253026/16P) from the Research Grant Committee (RGC) in Hong Kong, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2016YFA0204100, 2017YFA0208200), Young Thousand Talented Program, the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (17KJB150032), the project of scientific and technologic infrastructure of Suzhou (SZS201708), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD), and start-up support from Soochow University.

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This full text is made available under CC-BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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title = "Amorphization activated ruthenium-tellurium nanorods for efficient water splitting",

abstract = "Pursuing active and durable water splitting electrocatalysts is of vital significance for solving the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) process in energy supply. Herein, theoretical calculations identify that the local distortion-strain effect in amorphous RuTe2 system abnormally sensitizes the Te-pπ coupling capability and enhances the electron-transfer of Ru-sites, in which the excellent inter-orbital p-d transfers determine strong electronic activities for boosting OER performance. Thus, a robust electrocatalyst based on amorphous RuTe2 porous nanorods (PNRs) is successfully fabricated. In the acidic water splitting, a-RuTe2 PNRs exhibit a superior performance, which only require a cell voltage of 1.52 V to reach a current density of 10 mA cm−2. Detailed investigations show that the high density of defects combine with oxygen atoms to form RuOxHy species, which are conducive to the OER. This work offers valuable insights for constructing robust electrocatalysts based on theoretical calculations guided by rational design and amorphous materials. {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2019.",

author = "Juan Wang and Lili Han and Bolong Huang and Qi Shao and Xin, {Huolin L.} and Xiaoqing Huang",

year = "2019",

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journal = "Nature Communications",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Amorphization activated ruthenium-tellurium nanorods for efficient water splitting

AU - Wang, Juan

AU - Han, Lili

AU - Huang, Bolong

AU - Shao, Qi

AU - Xin, Huolin L.

AU - Huang, Xiaoqing

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - Pursuing active and durable water splitting electrocatalysts is of vital significance for solving the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) process in energy supply. Herein, theoretical calculations identify that the local distortion-strain effect in amorphous RuTe2 system abnormally sensitizes the Te-pπ coupling capability and enhances the electron-transfer of Ru-sites, in which the excellent inter-orbital p-d transfers determine strong electronic activities for boosting OER performance. Thus, a robust electrocatalyst based on amorphous RuTe2 porous nanorods (PNRs) is successfully fabricated. In the acidic water splitting, a-RuTe2 PNRs exhibit a superior performance, which only require a cell voltage of 1.52 V to reach a current density of 10 mA cm−2. Detailed investigations show that the high density of defects combine with oxygen atoms to form RuOxHy species, which are conducive to the OER. This work offers valuable insights for constructing robust electrocatalysts based on theoretical calculations guided by rational design and amorphous materials. © The Author(s) 2019.

AB - Pursuing active and durable water splitting electrocatalysts is of vital significance for solving the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) process in energy supply. Herein, theoretical calculations identify that the local distortion-strain effect in amorphous RuTe2 system abnormally sensitizes the Te-pπ coupling capability and enhances the electron-transfer of Ru-sites, in which the excellent inter-orbital p-d transfers determine strong electronic activities for boosting OER performance. Thus, a robust electrocatalyst based on amorphous RuTe2 porous nanorods (PNRs) is successfully fabricated. In the acidic water splitting, a-RuTe2 PNRs exhibit a superior performance, which only require a cell voltage of 1.52 V to reach a current density of 10 mA cm−2. Detailed investigations show that the high density of defects combine with oxygen atoms to form RuOxHy species, which are conducive to the OER. This work offers valuable insights for constructing robust electrocatalysts based on theoretical calculations guided by rational design and amorphous materials. © The Author(s) 2019.

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U2 - 10.1038/s41467-019-13519-1

DO - 10.1038/s41467-019-13519-1

M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal

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SN - 2041-1723

VL - 10

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

M1 - 5692

ER -

Amorphization activated ruthenium-tellurium nanorods for efficient water splitting

Abstract

Funding

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