Strong Electron Coupling of Ru and Vacancy-Rich Carbon Dots for Synergistically Enhanced Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

The exploitation of ingenious strategies to improve the activity and stability of ruthenium (Ru) is crucial for the advancement of Ru-based electrocatalysts. Vacancy engineering is a typical strategy for modulating the catalytic activity of electrocatalysts. However, creating vacancies directly into pure metallic Ru is difficult because of the extremely stringent conditions required and will result in instability because the integrity of the crystal structure is destroyed. In response, a compromise tactic by introducing vacancies in a Ru composite structure is proposed, and vacancy-rich carbon dots coupled with Ru (Ru@CDs) are elaborately constructed. Specifically, the vacancy-rich carbon dots (CDs) serve as an excellent platform for anchoring and trapping Ru nanoparticles, thus restraining their agglomeration and growth. As expected, Ru@CDs exhibited excellent catalytic performance with a low overpotential of 30 mV at 10 mA cm⁻² in 1 m KOH, a small Tafel slope of 22 mV decade⁻¹, and robust stability even after 10 000 cycles. The low overpotential is comparable to those of most previously reported Ru-based electrocatalysts. Additionally, spectroscopic characterizations and theoretical calculations demonstrate that the rich vacancies and the electron interactions between Ru and CDs synergistically lower the intermediate energy barrier and thereby maximize the activity of the Ru@CDs electrocatalyst.