Ruthenium-based single atom catalysts: synthesis and the application in electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction

Electrocatalytic water splitting is a promising production method for green hydrogen; however, its practical application is limited by the lack of robust catalysts for the cathode hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Recently, the use of Ru in electrocatalytic HER has become a research hotspot because Ru has a metal-hydrogen bond strength similar to that of Pt - known for its excellent HER activity - but has a lower cost than Pt. Numerous modification strategies are available to further improve the HER activity of metal Ru such as vulcanisation, phosphating and atomisation. The atomisation strategy has attracted much attention owing to its extremely high Ru atomic utilisation efficiency and tunable electronic structures. However, isolated studies could not effectively address the bottlenecks. Therefore, to promote the effective exploration of Ru-based single-atom catalysts and clarify the research status in this field, studies on related topics (