Construction of RuSe2/MoOx hybrid and used as bi-functional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting

Generally, bi-functionalal electrocatalysts used for overall water splitting (OWS) have good hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance. Herein, RuSe 2 /MoO x composite (RSMC) is constructed through a simple and convenient solid phase reaction (SPR) strategy, and is further studied as a potential electrocatalyst for OWS. At first, we prepared RuO 2 /MoSe 2 composite (RMC) precursor. When the RMC was heat-treated in a N 2 atmosphere, the SPR occurred between RuO 2 and MoSe 2 . Therefore, RMC was converted into RuSe 2 /MoO x composite (RSMC) in-situ , accompanied by the formation of oxygen vacancies (V O ) in the MoO x phase. In this work, the overpotential of RSMC-500 (prepared by annealing the RMC precursor at 500 °C in a N 2 atmosphere) at 10 mA cm −2 under alkaline conditions (1 M KOH) are 58 (HER) and 270 mV (OER), respectively. When using RSMC-500 as anode and cathode materials to make an electrolytic cell , a low cell voltage of 1.57 V is required under alkaline condition to achieve the current density of 10 mA cm −2 . The good performance shows the potential application of RSMC-500 in the field of renewable and clean energy area.