Highly Dispersed Ru‐Pt Heterogeneous Nanoparticles on Reduced Graphene Oxide for Efficient pH‐Universal Hydrogen Evolution

Abstract

AbstractAn efficient and stable electrocatalyst is key for the production of green hydrogen using water electrolysis. However, the weak dissociation ability of Pt‐based catalysts, resulting in slow kinetics severely hampers its applications in alkali medium. Herein, a simple “coincident reduction” strategy is reported to grow highly dispersed Ru‐Pt heterogeneous bimetallic nanoparticles on reduced graphene oxide (RuxPty@rGO) for efficient pH‐universal hydrogen evolution. RuxPty@rGO has superior catalytic activity at all pH values due to the synergistic effect between Ru and Pt and the ultra‐small nanoparticle. In particular, the catalyst with 13.6 wt% of noble metal (Ru1Pt2@rGO) has low overpotentials of 9, 6, and 36 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in 1 m KOH, 0.5 m H2SO4 and 1 m phosphate buffer solution (PBS), respectively, which outperformances monometallic counterparts and comparable to the best bimetallic catalysts ever reported. The catalyst is highly stable because of the strong bonding between the bimetallic nanoparticle and rGO. Mechanism studies show that Ru1Pt2@rGO has a faster Volmer–Tafel mechanism in alkali, high‐efficient H+ transfer and increased H adsorption ability in acid, resulting in superior reaction kinetics. This work provides a new route for mass production of high‐performance catalysts for practical applications at all pH values.