Unusual synergistic effect in layered Ruddlesden−Popper oxide enables ultrafast hydrogen evolution

Yinlong Zhu, Hassan A. Tahini, Zhiwei Hu, Jie Dai, Yubo Chen, Hainan Sun, Wei Zhou*, Meilin Liu, Sean C. Smith, Huanting Wang, Zongping Shao

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    238 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction are key to realize clean hydrogen production through water splitting. As an important family of functional materials, transition metal oxides are generally believed inactive towards hydrogen evolution reaction, although many of them show high activity for oxygen evolution reaction. Here we report the remarkable electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction of a layered metal oxide, Ruddlesden−Popper-type Sr 2 RuO 4 with alternative perovskite layer and rock-salt SrO layer, in an alkaline solution, which is comparable to those of the best electrocatalysts ever reported. By theoretical calculations, such excellent activity is attributed mainly to an unusual synergistic effect in the layered structure, whereby the (001) SrO-terminated surface cleaved in rock-salt layer facilitates a barrier-free water dissociation while the active apical oxygen site in perovskite layer promotes favorable hydrogen adsorption and evolution. Moreover, the activity of such layered oxide can be further improved by electrochemistry-induced activation.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number149
    JournalNature Communications
    Volume10
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2019

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