Ru nanoparticles supported on partially reduced TiO2 as highly efficient catalyst for hydrogen evolution

Abstract The development of low-cost yet highly efficient catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is crucial for large-scale clean and sustainable hydrogen production from water splitting. Tuning the interfacial structure of catalyst has emerged as an effective strategy to optimize the intrinsic catalytic activity. In this study, we demonstrated the deposition of Ru nanoparticles by freshly prepared strong reductive Ti(III) oxide, resulting in Ru/reduced TiO2 interface with oxygen vacancies. The as-prepared Ru/r-TiO2 exhibited a superior HER performance over commercial Pt/C in alkaline media, with only a small overpotential of 15 mV required to deliver the benchmark current density of 10 mA cm−2 and a high turnover frequency of 8.74 s−1 achieved at an overpotential of 100 mV. Density functional theory calculation indicates that high electrocatalytic activity of Ru/r-TiO2 is originated from the promotion of water dissociation and weakening OH adsorption by reduced TiO2, which facilitate the conversion of water to H2. This work provides an efficient strategy for the design of high-performance HER catalysts.