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Ligand-controlled synthesis of high density and ultra-small Ru nanoparticles with excellent electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance

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Abstract

Ultra-small size metal nanoparticles (u-MNPs) have broad applications in the fields of catalysis, biomedicine and energy conversion. Herein, by means of a ligand-controlled synthesis strategy, series of Ru-based NPs with high dispersity and ultra-small size (marked as u-Ru/C), or sparse and aggregated state (marked as a-Ru/C) anchored on the surface of hollow porous carbon shells are prepared. Systematical in-situ thermogravimetry-mass spectrometry-Fourier transform infrared spectra tests suggest that the different ligands in these Ru-based precursors can regulate the nucleation, growth and fixation of metal sites during the pyrolysis process, thus contributing to Ru NPs with various size and dispersity. As a result, when applied to hydrogen evolution reaction, the u-Ru-1/C catalyst displays a low Tafel slope of 26 mV·dec−1, overpotential of 31 mV (at 10 mA·cm−2) and a large exchange current density of 1.7 mA·cm−2 in 1.0 M KOH, significantly better than that of the a-Ru-2/C, hollow carbon and even commercial 20% Pt/C. This is mainly because that the u-Ru-1/C sample owns both smaller particle size, more electrochemical active sites, higher intrinsic activity and optimized surface H adsorption ability than that of the a-Ru-2/C counterpart. Such ligand-modulated growth strategy is not only applicable to Ru, but also can be extended to other similar metals, offering a step forward in the design and synthesis of highly dispersed u-MNPs.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22075147 and 21533012), the PAPD of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

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  1. Zhiwen Che and Xuyun Lu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Nan**g Normal University, Nan**g, 210023, China

    Zhiwen Che, Xuyun Lu, Bingfeng Cai, **angxing Xu, Jianchun Bao & Ying Liu

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  1. Zhiwen Che
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  2. Xuyun Lu
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  3. Bingfeng Cai
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  4. **angxing Xu
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Correspondence to Ying Liu.

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12274_2021_3645_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Ligand-controlled synthesis of high density and ultra-small Ru nanoparticles with excellent electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance

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Che, Z., Lu, X., Cai, B. et al. Ligand-controlled synthesis of high density and ultra-small Ru nanoparticles with excellent electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance. Nano Res. 15, 1269–1275 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3645-z

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