Amorphous–crystalline RuTi nanosheets enhancing OH species adsorption for efficient hydrogen oxidation catalysis

Abstract

Anion exchange membrane fuel cells are a potentially cost-effective energy conversion technology, however, the electrocatalyst for the anodic hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) suffers from sluggish kinetics under alkaline conditions. Herein, we report that Ru-based nanosheets with amorphous–crystalline heterointerfaces of Ru and Ti-doped RuO₂ (a/c-Ru/Ti-RuO₂) can serve as a highly efficient HOR catalyst with a mass activity of 4.16 A mg_Ru⁻¹, which is 19.8-fold higher than that of commercial Pt/C. Detailed characterization studies show that abundant amorphous–crystalline heterointerfaces of a/c-Ru/Ti-RuO₂ nanosheets provide oxygen vacancies and unsaturated coordination bonds for balancing adsorption of hydrogen and hydroxyl species on Ru active sites to elevate HOR activity. Moreover, Ti doping can facilitate CO oxidation, leading to enhanced strength to CO poisoning. This work provides a strategy for enhancing alkaline HOR performance over Ru-based catalysts with heteroatom and heterointerface dual-engineering, which will attract immediate interest in chemistry, materials science and beyond.