Abstract Development of high‐performance, low‐cost catalysts for electrochemical water splitting is key to sustainable hydrogen production. Herein, ultrafast synthesis of carbon‐supported ruthenium–copper (RuCu/C) nanocomposites is reported by magnetic induction heating, where the rapid Joule's heating of RuCl3and CuCl2at 200 A for 10 s produces Ru–Cl residues‐decorated Ru nanocrystals dispersed on a CuClxscaffold, featuring effective Ru to Cu charge transfer. Among the series, the RuCu/C‐3 sample exhibits the best activity in 1 mKOH toward both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), with an overpotential of only −23 and +270 mV to reach 10 mA cm−2, respectively. When RuCu/C‐3 is used as bifunctional catalysts for electrochemical water splitting, a low cell voltage of 1.53 V is needed to produce 10 mA cm−2, markedly better than that with a mixture of commercial Pt/C+RuO2(1.59 V). In situ X‐ray absorption spectroscopy measurements show that the bifunctional activity is due to reduction of the Ru–Cl residues at low electrode potentials that enriches metallic Ru and oxidation at high electrode potentials that facilitates the formation of amorphous RuOx. These findings highlight the unique potential of MIH in the ultrafast synthesis of high‐performance catalysts for electrochemical water splitting.
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Ultrafast Preparation of Nonequilibrium FeNi Spinels by Magnetic Induction Heating for Unprecedented Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalysis
Carbon-supported nanocomposites are attracting particular attention as high-performance, low-cost electrocatalysts for electrochemical water splitting. These are mostly prepared by pyrolysis and hydrothermal procedures that are time-consuming (from hours to days) and typically difficult to produce a nonequilibrium phase. Herein, for the first time ever, we exploit magnetic induction heating-quenching for ultrafast production of carbon-FeNi spinel oxide nanocomposites (within seconds), which exhibit an unprecedentedly high performance towards oxygen evolution reaction (OER), with an ultralow overpotential of only +260 mV to reach the high current density of 100 mA cm -2 . Experimental and theoretical studies show that the rapid heating and quenching process (ca. 10 3 K s -1 ) impedes the Ni and Fe phase segregation and produces a Cl-rich surface, both contributing to the remarkable catalytic activity. Results from this study highlight the unique advantage of ultrafast heating/quenching in the structural engineering of functional nanocomposites to achieve high electrocatalytic performance towards important electrochemical reactions.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1900235
- PAR ID:
- 10388374
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Research
- Volume:
- 2022
- ISSN:
- 2639-5274
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 13
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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