Hydrogen evolution and oxygen reduction reactions catalyzed by core-shelled Fe@Ru nanoparticles embedded in porous dodecahedron carbon

Abstract Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) are two important electrochemical reactions for various energy conversion and storage systems, hence have continuously encouraged tremendous efforts for seeking new catalysts with excellent efficiency and durable long-term stability. Herein, core-shelled Fe@Ru nanoparticles encapsulated in nitrogen-doped porous dodecahedron carbon (Fe@Ru/NC-x, x denotes the initial Ru mass loading percentage) are employed as efficient catalysts for both HER and ORR. Among all the samples, Fe@Ru/NC-9% exhibits superior bi-functional catalytic performance. Its HER activity is close to the state-of-art Pt/C catalyst in alkalic electrolyte, while it also has markedly outperformed long-term stability compared with Pt/C. Moreover, it has a superior ORR activity and stability, along with stronger methanol tolerance than Pt/C in alkalic electrolyte, while in acidic electrolyte, its ORR activity is in the same level with Pt/C but outperformance is demonstrated in durability measurement and methanol poisoning test. Such remarkable electrocatalytic behaviors could be largely attributable to the distinct Fe@Ru core-shell structure resulted lattice strain in the interface, in conjunction with the synergistic catalytic effects between the core-shell structure and the porous dodecahedron carbon support.