Channel-rich RuCu nanosheets for pH-universal overall water splitting electrocatalysis

Abstract

Channel-rich RuCu snowflake-like nanosheets (NSs) composed of crystallized Ru and amorphous Cu were used as efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER), hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), and overall water splitting in pH-universal electrolytes. The optimized RuCu NSs/C-350 °C and RuCu NSs/C-250 °C show attractive activities of OER and HER with low overpotentials and small Tafel slopes, respectively. When applied to overall water splitting, the optimized RuCu NSs/C can reach 10 mA cm−2 at cell voltages of only 1.49, 1.55, 1.49 and 1.50 V in 1 m KOH, 0.1 m KOH, 0.5 m H2SO4 and 0.05 m H2SO4, respectively, much lower than those of commercial Ir/C∥Pt/C. The optimized electrolyzer exhibits superior durability with small potential change after up to 45 h in 1 m KOH, showing a class of efficient functional electrocatalysts for overall water splitting.