Bifunctional Ultrathin RhRu0.5‐Alloy Nanowire Electrocatalysts for Hydrazine‐Assisted Water Splitting

Abstract

AbstractHydrazine‐assisted water electrolysis offers a feasible path for low‐voltage green hydrogen production. Herein, the design and synthesis of ultrathin RhRu0.5‐alloy wavy nanowires as bifunctional electrocatalysts for both the anodic hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR) and the cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is reported. It is shown that the RhRu0.5‐alloy wavy nanowires can achieve complete electrooxidation of hydrazine with a low overpotential and high mass activity, as well as improved performance for the HER. The resulting RhRu0.5 bifunctional electrocatalysts enable, high performance hydrazine‐assisted water electrolysis delivering a current density of 100 mA cm−2 at an ultralow cell voltage of 54 mV and a high current density of 853 mA cm−2 at a cell voltage of 0.6 V. The RhRu0.5 electrocatalysts further demonstrate a stable operation at a high current density of 100 mA cm−2 for 80 hours of testing period with little irreversible degradation. The overall performance greatly exceeds that of the previously reported hydrazine‐assisted water electrolyzers, offering a pathway for efficiently converting hazardous hydrazine into molecular hydrogen.