Atomic Cluster Outperforms Single Atom in Hydrogen Evolution and Hydrazine Oxidation for Energy-Efficient Water Splitting

作     者：Liu, Chunhua Wu, Shuwen Yang, Yang Wei, Jinshan Chen, Shujing Sun, Xiao-Qing Luo, Shuiping Hussain, Muhammad Bilal Feng, Renfei Fu, Xian-Zhu Liu, Shao-Qing Luo, Jing-Li 

作者机构：Shenzhen Univ Coll Mat Sci & Engn Guangdong Res Ctr Interfacial Engn Funct Mat Shenzhen Key Lab Energy Electrocatalyt Mat Shenzhen 518055 Guangdong Peoples R China Shenzhen Univ Coll Phys & Optoelect Engn Shenzhen 518060 Guangdong Peoples R China Univ Toronto Dept Mat Sci & Engn 184 Coll St Toronto ON M5S 3E4 Canada Canadian Light Source Inc 44 Innovat Blvd Saskatoon SK S7N 0X4 Canada 

出 版 物：《ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS》 (Adv. Funct. Mater.)

年 卷 期：2025年第35卷第19期

核心收录：

学科分类：0809[工学-电子科学与技术（可授工学、理学学位）] 08[工学] 0805[工学-材料科学与工程（可授工学、理学学位）] 0703[理学-化学] 0702[理学-物理学] 

基　　金：National Natural Science Foundation of China Shenzhen Science and Technology Program [ZDSYS20220527171401003, RCBS20231211090519029, KQTD20190929173914967] 22309116 

主　　题：direct hydrazine fuel cell hydrazine oxidation ruthenium cluster self-powered hydrogen production 

摘      要：The hydrazine-assisted water splitting (HzAWS) is promising for energy-saving hydrogen production. However, developing efficient bifunctional catalysts that exert hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR) at industrial-grade current densities remains challenging. Here, RuC-NiCoP catalyst, ruthenium clusters (RuC) immobilized onto NiCoP, is developed to elucidate the superior performance of RuC in enhancing bifunctional electrocatalytic activity over ruthenium single atoms (RuSA). The RuC-NiCoP achieves current densities of 10 and 100 mA cm-2 for HER and HzOR with working potentials of -10 and -89 mV, respectively, outperforming RuSA-NiCoP (-16 and -65 mV). During HzAWS, a cell voltage reduction of 1.77 V at 300 mA cm-2 is observed compared to overall water splitting. Density functional theory calculations reveal that RuC improves the adsorption energy for H2O and N2H4, optimizes the H* intermediate desorption, and reduces the dehydrogenation barrier from *N2H3 to *N2H2. Additionally, the direct hydrazine fuel cell with a RuC-NiCoP anode delivers an impressive power density of 226 mW cm-2 and enables a self-powered hydrogen production system, achieving an unprecedented hydrogen production rate of 4.9 mmol cm-2 h-1. This work offers a new perspective on developing efficient sub-nanoscale bifunctional electrocatalysts and advancing practical energy-saving hydrogen production techniques.