Engineering Co and Ru dual-metal atoms on nitrogen-doped carbon as highly efficient bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts

Abstract

It is crucial to develop bifunctional electrocatalysts with excellent activities and robust stability toward the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). However, it is challenging to explore an electrocatalyst that simultaneously possesses ORR and OER active sites. Herein, we designed a strategy for one-step adsorption to manufacture a nitrogen-doped carbon-supported Co and Ru single-atom catalyst (Co/Ru SAs-N–C) with outstanding ORR and OER performance under alkaline conditions. The catalyst displays a half-wave potential of 0.855 V in ORR and a low potential of 338 mV to reach 10 mA cm⁻² current density in OER, thus obtaining ΔE = 0.713 V. The result of the density functional theory (DFT) calculation indicates that the introduction of Ru sites enhances catalytic performance for ORR and OER.