Issue 20, 2024

First synthesis of RuSn solid-solution alloy nanoparticles and their enhanced hydrogen evolution reaction activity

Abstract

Solid-solution alloys based on platinum group metals and p-block metals have attracted much attention due to their promising potential as materials with a continuously fine-tunable electronic structure. Here, we report on the first synthesis of novel solid-solution RuSn alloy nanoparticles (NPs) by electrochemical cyclic voltammetry sweeping of RuSn@SnOx NPs. High-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy maps confirmed the random and homogeneous distribution of Ru and Sn elements in the alloy NPs. Compared with monometallic Ru NPs, the RuSn alloy NPs showed improved hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance. The overpotentials of Ru0.94Sn0.06 NPs/C and Ru0.87Sn0.13 NPs/C to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm−2 were 43.41 and 33.19 mV, respectively, which are lower than those of monometallic Ru NPs/C (53.53 mV) and commercial Pt NPs/C (55.77 mV). The valence-band structures of the NPs investigated by hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrated that the d-band centre of RuSn NPs shifted downward compared with that of Ru NPs. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray absorption near-edge structure analyses indicated that in the RuSn alloy NPs, charge transfer occurs from Sn to Ru, which was considered to result in a downward shift of the d-band centre in RuSn NPs and to regulate the adsorption energy of intermediate Hads effectively, and thus enable the RuSn solid-solution alloy NPs to exhibit excellent HER catalytic properties.

Graphical abstract: First synthesis of RuSn solid-solution alloy nanoparticles and their enhanced hydrogen evolution reaction activity

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
18 dec 2023
Accepted
14 apr 2024
First published
16 apr 2024
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2024,15, 7560-7567

First synthesis of RuSn solid-solution alloy nanoparticles and their enhanced hydrogen evolution reaction activity

X. Zhou, M. Mukoyoshi, K. Kusada, T. Yamamoto, T. Toriyama, Y. Murakami, S. Kawaguchi, Y. Kubota, O. Seo, O. Sakata, T. Ina and H. Kitagawa, Chem. Sci., 2024, 15, 7560 DOI: 10.1039/D3SC06786F

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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