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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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Change history
24 March 2021
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-021-00601-5
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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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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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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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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-020-0446-9
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