J. Mater. Sci. Technol. ›› 2025, Vol. 231: 77-85.DOI: 10.1016/j.jmst.2024.11.074

• Research article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Sulphur anion induced electronic structure regulation of RuO2 nanodots for efficient electrocatalytic overall water splitting

Xi-Zheng Fana, Jing-Peng Hub, Xin Dua, Zhong-Yi Liua, Xin-Zheng Yuea,*   

  1. aGreen Catalysis Center, College of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China;
    bHenan Institute of Geographic Information, Zhengzhou 450000, China
  • Received:2024-07-03 Revised:2024-09-21 Accepted:2024-11-17 Published:2025-10-01 Online:2025-01-24
  • Contact: *E-mail address: yuexz@zzu.edu.cn (X.-Z. Yue).

Abstract: Developing bifunctional electrocatalysts with enhanced efficiency for both hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) remains a significant challenge. Herein, we constructed S-doped ultra-fine RuO2 nanodots that were uniformly dispersed on carbon nanotubes. The incorporation of S effectively induces local rearrangement of the electronic structure of RuO2, thereby enhancing the dispersion of RuO2 as active sites and optimizing the adsorption free energy of H* intermediate. As expected, the as-synthesized S-RuO2/CNT delivers remarkable HER activity in all pH electrolytes, achieving lower overpotentials of 136, 159, and 396 mV at 100 mA cm-2 in acidic, neutral, and basic solutions, respectively. Moreover, a unitary S-RuO2/CNT electrolytic cell requires only a lower voltage (1.476 V) to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm-2 in 1.0 mol/L KOH. This ingenious work represents a significant breakthrough in the rational design of bifunctional electrocatalysts, enabling remarkable performance in electrochemical water electrolysis.

Key words: RuO2 nanodots, Electrocatalytic overall water splitting, Sulphur anion doping, Electronic structure regulation