Ru nanoparticles supported on partially reduced TiO₂ as highly efficient catalyst for hydrogen evolution

The development of low-cost yet highly efficient catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is crucial for large-scale clean and sustainable hydrogen production from water splitting. Tuning the interfacial structure of catalyst has emerged as an effective strategy to optimize the intrinsic catalytic activity. In this study, we demonstrated the deposition of Ru nanoparticles by freshly prepared strong reductive Ti(III) oxide, resulting in Ru/reduced TiO₂ interface with oxygen vacancies. The as-prepared Ru/r-TiO₂ exhibited a superior HER performance over commercial Pt/C in alkaline media, only with a small overpotential of 15 mV required to deliver the benchmark current density of 10 mA cm^-2 and a high turnover frequency of 8.74 s^-1 at an overpotential of 100 mV. Density functional theory calculation indicates that high electrocatalytic activity of Ru/r-TiO₂ is originated from the promotion of water dissociation and weakening OH adsorption by reduced TiO₂, which facilitates the conversion of water to H₂. This work provides an efficient strategy for the design of high-performance HER catalysts.