Study on the hydrogen evolution performance of RuNi/TiO2-oxMWCNT catalyst in alkaline media

Hydrogen, as a clean and pollution-free energy with high calorific value, is one of the best alternatives to fossil fuels. Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), as a half reaction of electrochemical water splitting, has also received extensive attention. At present, the development of low-cost and high-performance hydrogen evolution catalysts still faces enormous challenges. In this work, we synthesized a series of RuNi/TiO2-oxMWCNT catalysts with different Ru and Ni ratio. After optimizing the composition and proportion, RuNi/TiO2-oxMWCNT with Ru:Ni=4:6 has the optimal hydrogen evolution performance. High HER performance of extremely low 14.8 mV overpotential at 10 mA·cm−2 and 38.4 mV·dec−1 Tafel slope with perfect stability is achieved, which is superior to most reported ruthenium-based catalysts and even commercial Pt/C. XPS and UPS indicates that there is a metal synergistic effect of Ru and Ni and a strong SMSI between Ru and TiO2 in the RuNi/TiO2-oxMWCNT catalyst, which helps to improve hydrogen evolution performance. This study provides a pathway for the rational design of multi-component nanostructured catalysts for HER.