Enhancing Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution Reaction on Ru-Decorated TiO2 Nanotube Layers: Synergistic Role of Ti3+, Ru Single Atoms, and Ru Nanoparticles

Thalluri, Sitaramanjaneya Mouli; Rodriguez Pereira, Jhonatan; Michalička, Jan; Kolíbalová, Eva; Hromádko, Luděk; Šlang, Stanislav; Pouzar, Miloslav; Sopha, Hanna Ingrid; Zazpe Mendioroz, Raúl; Macák, Jan

Enhancing Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution Reaction on Ru-Decorated TiO2 Nanotube Layers: Synergistic Role of Ti3+, Ru Single Atoms, and Ru Nanoparticles

Files

2025Thalluri.pdf(3.91 MB)

Date

2025-05-01

Authors

Thalluri, Sitaramanjaneya Mouli

Rodriguez Pereira, Jhonatan

Michalička, Jan

Kolíbalová, Eva

Hromádko, Luděk

Šlang, Stanislav

Pouzar, Miloslav

Sopha, Hanna Ingrid

Zazpe Mendioroz, Raúl

Macák, Jan

ORCID

0000-0001-6231-0061

0000-0002-8548-8185

0000-0001-7091-3022

Publisher

Wiley

Altmetrics

Abstract

Synergistic interplays involving multiple active centers originating from TiO2 nanotube layers (TNT) and ruthenium (Ru) species comprising of both single atoms (SAs) and nanoparticles (NPs) augment the alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) by enhancing Volmer kinetics from rapid water dissociation and improving Tafel kinetics from efficient H* desorption. Atomic layer deposition of Ru with 50 process cycles results in a mixture of Ru SAs and 2.8 +/- 0.4 nm NPs present on TNT layers, and it emerges with the highest HER activity among all the electrodes synthesized. A detailed study of the Ti and Ru species using different high-resolution techniques confirmed the presence of Ti3+ states and the coexistence of Ru SAs and NPs. With insights from literature, the role of Ti3+, appropriate work functions of TNT layers and Ru, and the synergistic effect of Ru SAs and Ru NPs in improving the performance of alkaline HER were elaborated and justified. The aforementioned characteristics led to a remarkable performance by having 9 mV onset potentials and 33 mV dec(-1) of Tafel slopes and a higher turnover frequency of 1.72 H-2 s(-1) at 30 mV. Besides, a notable stability from 28 h staircase chronopotentiometric measurements for TNT@Ru surpasses TNT@Pt in comparison.

Keywords

alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction, ruthenium nanoparticles, ruthenium single atoms, TiO2 nanotube layers, water dissociation

Citation

Energy & Environmental Materials. 2025, vol. 8, issue 3, 8 p.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eem2.12864

Document type

Peer-reviewed

Document version

Published version

Language of document

en

Document licence

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/