Rapid and facile laser-assistant preparation of Ru-ZIF-67-derived CoRu nanoalloy@N-doped graphene for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction at all pH values

• DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2021.138337
• Publication Date: 2021-04-08T12:39:19Z
• Authors: Haixu Wang; Ming Zhou; Xiangjie Bo; Liping Guo
• Keywords: 02 engineering and technology; 0210 nano-technology; 7. Clean energy

Abstract High temperature pyrolysis needs complicated and harsh preparative condition, such as inert gas protection, long reaction time and high pyrolysis temperature. This work reported that a cobalt-ruthenium nanoalloy coated with nitrogen- doped graphene (CoRu@NG-x) was rapidly prepared from Ru-ZIF-67 as precursors by laser engraving in air environment and at room temperature for the first time. The addition of a small amount of ruthenium in cobalt can further improve the hydrogen catalytic performance. CoRu@NG-3 (Ru, 0.18wt%) is an efficient HER electrocatalyst in a wide pH range. Compared with the reported ruthenium alloys, the content of ruthenium in CoRu@NG-3 is the lowest. It's worth noting that the optimal CoRu@NG-3 shows overpotentials of 62, 52 and 88 mV at the current density of 10 mA cm−2 in 1.0 M KOH, 0.5 M H2SO4 and 1.0 M PBS solution for HER catalysis. CoRu@NG-3 also has a good stability under all pH conditions. This study may offer a novel strategy to rapidly prepare electrode materials at room temperature and in the air.