Proceedings of MATSUS Spring 2025 Conference (MATSUSSpring25)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.matsusspring.2025.043
Publication date: 16th December 2024
Producing hydrogen (H2) through electrocatalytic water splitting in an electrolyzer offers a clean and sustainable pathway to generate an eco-friendly fuel and energy carrier. The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) plays a critical role in this process, though its efficiency is bottlenecked by sluggish kinetics [1-3]. Noble-metal-based catalysts, particularly IrO₂ and RuO₂, are the state-of-the-art OER electrocatalysts available today due to their excellent activity but are hindered by high costs and instability issues. In particular, a major obstacle to the large-scale application of Ru lies in its tendency to leach in alkaline media [4, 5].
To address these limitations, extensive research has focused on improving the stability of noble-metal-based catalysts, reducing noble metal usage while retaining high performance, and exploring non-noble metal alternatives with strong OER activity. Transition-metal-based catalysts are promising, affordable alternatives as they are stable in alkaline conditions and have low OER potentials [6, 7]. However, their limited conductivity restricts their catalytic performance in OER applications. To overcome both the instability issues and the OER activity, we propose using MXenes, a rapidly advancing family of 2D transition metal carbides and nitrides, as conductive supports to form NiRu@Ti3C2Tx hybrids [8-12]. While many studies have explored MXene-based materials for applications in water splitting, OER remains relatively less-explored compared to the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Moreover, there is limited information on how MXenes influence the stability of metal/oxide during alkaline OER.
In this study, the potential of MXenes to enhance the stability of Ru-based catalysts, which are known for their substantial dissolution in alkaline media during OER, was investigated. Here, a bimetallic NiRu compound was synthesized and incorporated onto the Ti3C2Tx MXene surface at varying concentrations (1%-25%) using a facile hydrothermal method. The resulting NiRu@Ti3C2Tx composites were tested for OER activity in 1 M KOH to examine the impact of Ti3C2Tx content on Ru dissolution and overall catalytic performance. After incorporating Ru into a stable Ni-based environment and functionalizing Ti3C2 with NiRu, the composites showed reduced Ru leaching and increased OER activity compared to pure Ru. Higher Ti3C2Tx content further stabilized Ru. These results highlight the positive impact of Ti3C2Tx functionalization on the stability and efficiency of Ru-based OER catalysts.
We gratefully acknowledge the Helmholtz Association's Initiative and Networking Fund (Helmholtz Young Investigator Group VH-NG-1719) for the funding. M.P.B greatly acknowledges support from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the framework of the project Catlab (03EW0015A/B). The authors would like to address particular thanks to R. Schwiddessen, M. Tovar and K. Schwarzburg from the X-Ray and Microscopy and Spectroscopy corelabs of the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin for providing access to their facility and training on the equipment.
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