Heterophase Intermetallic Compounds for Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Production at Industrial-Scale Current Densities

Heterophase nanomaterials have sparked significant research interest in catalysis due to their distinctive properties arising from synergistic effects of different components and the formed phase boundary. However, challenges persist in the controlled synthesis of heterophase intermetallic compounds (IMCs), primarily due to the lattice mismatch of distinct crystal phases and the difficulty in achieving precise control of the phase transitions. Herein, orthorhombic/cubic Ru₂Ge₃/RuGe IMCs with engineered boundary architecture are synthesized and anchored on the reduced graphene oxide. The Ru₂Ge₃/RuGe IMCs exhibit excellent hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance with a high current density of 1000 mA cm^-2 at a low overpotential of 135 mV. The presence of phase boundaries enhances charge transfer and improves the kinetics of water dissociation while optimizing the processes of hydrogen adsorption/desorption, thus boosting the HER performance. Moreover, an anion exchange membrane electrolyzer is constructed using Ru₂Ge₃/RuGe as the cathode electrocatalyst, which achieves a current density of 1000 mA cm^-2 at a low voltage of 1.73 V, and the activity remains virtually undiminished over 500 h.