Seeking reliable hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts is currently a big challenge for hydrogen production in water splitting. Herein, we demonstrated that Ru nanoclusters anchored on Co/N-doped carbon nanotubes (Ru@Co/N-CNTs) are highly active for HER both in acid and alkaline electrolytes. The catalyst can be fabricated by facile and controlled steps involving the Co self-catalyzed Co/N-doped carbon nanotube formation and the subsequent Ru nanocluster deposition by a galvanic replacement reaction. The spectroscopic and morphological observations confirmed the self-catalyzed Co/N-doped carbon nanotube fabrication and Ru nanocluster deposition. Because of the strong electronic effect and high exposure of Ru active sites, this optimal hybrid catalyst exhibited remarkable catalytic activity and superior stability toward HER. It required low overpotentials of 48 and 92 mV to offer 10 mA cm^–2 in alkaline and acidic media, respectively, which outperformed most of the Ru-based and Co-based catalysts reported in the literature. The high catalytic activity, stability, as well as the catalytic efficiency expressed by the specific activity and cost per current density of the prepared catalyst were also analyzed by comparing with those of Ru/C and Pt/C, and the higher cost efficiency makes it a very promising alternative HER catalyst.

中文翻译：

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掺Co / N掺杂碳纳米管上的Ru纳米团簇有效催化产氢反应

寻求可靠的析氢反应（HER）催化剂目前是水分解过程中制氢的一大挑战。在这里，我们证明了锚定在Co / N掺杂碳纳米管上的Ru纳米团簇（Ru @ Co / N-CNTs）在酸性和碱性电解质中对HER都具有很高的活性。可以通过容易且可控的步骤来制造催化剂，所述步骤包括Co自催化的Co / N掺杂的碳纳米管的形成以及随后通过电置换反应进行的Ru纳米簇的沉积。光谱学和形态学观察证实了自催化Co / N掺杂的碳纳米管的制备和Ru纳米簇的沉积。由于强的电子效应和Ru活性位点的高度暴露，这种最佳的杂化催化剂表现出显着的催化活性和对HER的优异稳定性。^–2在碱性和酸性介质中的性能分别优于文献中报道的大多数Ru基和Co基催化剂。通过与Ru / C和Pt / C的比较，还分析了所制备催化剂的高催化活性，稳定性以及比活度和单位电流密度成本所表示的催化效率，较高的成本效率使其具有较高的成本效益。一种非常有希望的替代HER催化剂。