Speaker
Description
Increasing environmental concerns have emphasized the significance of hydrogen and its production through sustainable routes. Hydrogen generation by water electrolysis has been considered an effective and environmentally friendly approach in which catalysis or electrocatalysis plays a vital role. Up to now, catalysts based on platinum group materials have dominated the market, with platinum and iridium being considered the most efficient catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). However, there is a need to develop active, long-lasting and cost-effective electrocatalysts made from abundant materials for a feasible hydrogen economy.
Ruthenium is considered to be a promising alternative to platinum due to its similar catalytic activity and significantly lower cost. Previous studies have demonstrated that adding titanium to ruthenium-iridium catalysts increases stability without compromising catalytic activity. Defects and local chemistry at defects have been also investigated and identified as a prominent influence on the catalytic activity.
Our study focuses on a systematic investigation of microstructure and composition and their role on the catalytic activity of ruthenium-titanium thin film. We investigated different compositions and varied the grain size to deconvolute their significance on the catalytic activity. Atom probe tomography revealed the presence of local compositional differences in the microstructure and subsequent electrochemical characterization showed promising findings.
