Rapid Joule heating fabrication of Ru cluster-loaded WO3 on carbon nanotubes to enhance alkaline electrocatalytic hydrogen production activity

The design of efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) suitable for industrial applications remains a challenging task. In this work, Ru clusters were loaded onto WO 3 which were grown on carbon nanotubes (WRu/C-JH) using a rapid Joule heating method. The crystal phases of WO 3 was transformed, and abundant active sites were exposed during the rapid heating and cooling process. All these modifications contributed to the greatly improved electrocatalytic activity in HER. As tested, in 1 M KOH, it only required an overpotential of 22 mV to reach 10 mA cm −2 and 401 mV to reach a high current density of 1 A cm −2 on WRu/C-JH. Moreover, WRu/C-JH demonstrated excellent stability at 500 mA cm −2 for 100 h. Furthermore, a two-electrode system was constructed to assess overall water splitting performance of WRu/C-JH. This system was capable of reaching 100 mA cm −2 at a low voltage of 1.94 V. The mechanism of the enhancement in HER for as-prepared sample was also deeply discussed.