Electron‐Rich Ru Clusters Anchored on Pure Phase W2C Enables Highly Active and CO‐Resistant Alkaline Hydrogen Oxidation

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Abstract
Developing highly active and CO‐resistant Ru‐based catalysts for the alkaline hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) can advance the large‐scale application of alkaline hydrogen fuel cells but remains a huge challenge. Herein, a pure phase W2C supported Ru cluster catalyst (Ru/W2C) is successfully synthesized through a one‐step carburization method. It is found that the charge transfer from W2C to the strongly anchored Ru clusters forms the electron‐rich Ruδ− sites and electron‐deficient Wδ+ sites, which significantly weakens the adsorption strength of *H and *CO, strengthens the binding of *OH and improves the water connectivity in the electric double layer. The Ru/W2C catalyst shows superior mass activity (2163 mA mgPGM−1) in alkaline HOR, which is 12.52 and 20.62 times higher than that for Pt/C and Ru/C, respectively. Owing to the weak adsorption and fast removal rate of CO, the Ru/W2C exhibits outstanding CO tolerance, with 88% of the initial activity being retained in the durability test, whereas the Ru/C and Pt/C suffer from severe deactivation. These findings may guide the design of advanced alkaline HOR catalysts based on the pure phase tungsten carbide.
Funding Information
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (22375001, 12304020)
  • Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province (2208085Y03)
  • Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20230909)

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