Ultrafine ruthenium–iridium–tellurium nanotubes for boosting overall water splitting in acidic media

Abstract

Design of high performance electrocatalysts is critical to electrocatalytic water splitting in acidic media. Herein, a replacement reaction with Te nanowires (NWs) is employed for the synthesis of ternary RuIrTe nanotubes (NTs) as bifunctional electrocatalysts for overall water splitting in an acidic environment. Depending on the electronic coupling between Ru, Ir and Te elements and abundant active sites provided by the one-dimensional tubular rough surface, the as-obtained RuIrTe NTs exhibit high catalytic activity for overall water splitting in acidic electrolytes. At a current density of 10 mA cm⁻², the RuIrTe NTs display excellent catalytic performance with an overpotential of 29 mV and 205 mV for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), respectively. The cell voltage of a two-electrode water splitting system composed of bifunctional RuIrTe NTs is only 1.511 V in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ media. This study provides a feasible method to optimize the performance of electrocatalysts for overall water splitting in acidic media by the rational combination of composition and morphology engineering.