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Lattice-confined Ru clusters with high CO tolerance and activity for the hydrogen oxidation reaction

Nature Catalysis volume 3, pages 454–462 (2020)Cite this article

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 24 March 2021

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Abstract

An efficient catalyst for the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) must maintain an oxide-free metal surface in a relatively high potential range. This requirement automatically excludes ruthenium because it is susceptible to oxidation in the hydrogen adsorption/desorption potential region. Herein we report Ru clusters partially confined in the lattice of urchin-like TiO2 crystals (Ru@TiO2) that can effectively catalyse the HOR up to a potential of 0.9 VRHE with a mass activity higher than that of a PtRu catalyst under both acidic and basic conditions. Moreover, the HOR activity of this Ru@TiO2 catalyst is not affected by 1,000 ppm CO impurity. Even at a high CO content of 10 vol%, Ru@TiO2 still selectively catalyses the HOR. Confined Ru clusters grow along the lattice of TiO2 with abundant Ru–Ti bond formation. Such atomically connected co-crystals offer efficient electron penetration from electron-rich TiO2 to Ru metal, leading to sluggish CO adsorption kinetics during the HOR.

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Fig. 1: X-ray diffraction.
Fig. 2: Electron microscopy of TiO2 and Ru@TiO2.
Fig. 3: HRTEM and HAADF-STEM of Ru@TiO2.
Fig. 4: The catalytic performance for HOR.
Fig. 5: The catalytic performance for HOR in the presence of CO.
Fig. 6: XPS and EXAFS spectra of the produced catalysts.
Fig. 7: Steady stability testing of the catalysts for the HOR.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91834301, 21776024 and 21761162015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The State Key Laboratory of Power Transmission Equipment and System Security and New Technology, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China

    Yuanyuan Zhou, Zhenyang Xie, Jinxia Jiang, Jian Wang, Xiaoyun Song, Qian He, Wei Ding & Zidong Wei

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Contributions

W.D. and Z.W. directed the project. Y.Z. performed the main experimental works. Z.X., J.W., X.S. and Q.H. participated in some of the experimental work. W.D. and Y.Z. analysed the data. J.J. participated in the analysis of the XAS data. All the authors discussed the results. W.D., Y.Z. and Z.W. wrote the manuscript together.

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Correspondence to Wei Ding or Zidong Wei.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–16 and Table 1.

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Zhou, Y., Xie, Z., Jiang, J. et al. Lattice-confined Ru clusters with high CO tolerance and activity for the hydrogen oxidation reaction. Nat Catal 3, 454–462 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-020-0446-9

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