The use of seawater electrolysis for hydrogen production faces several serious challenges, including the rapid deactivation of electrocatalysts through chloride anion (Cl⁻) induced corrosion. We have demonstrated that Ru nanoparticles possessing an abundance of surface hydroxyl groups along with borate species (Ru–BO_x–OH) exhibit high activity and stability as electrocatalysts for seawater splitting. The optimal electrocatalyst (Ru–BO_x–OH-300) uncovered in this study displays an extremely high catalytic performance for both the hydrogen (HER) and oxygen (OER) evolution reactions in alkaline seawater (HER, 22 mV and OER, 235 mV at 10 mA cm⁻²), as well as a low cell voltage (1.47 V) and ultra-long-term stability (1000 hours at 10, 50 and 100 mA cm⁻²) for overall seawater splitting. Furthermore, the Ru–BO_x–OH-300-based anion-exchange membrane seawater electrolyzer requires only 1.73 or 1.95 V to reach a current density of 500 or 1000 mA cm⁻², respectively, and exhibits excellent stability for 400 hours without obvious decay. The results of the experiments and theoretical calculations reveal that the high water affinity of Ru–BO_x–OH-300 caused by the presence of hydroxyl and borate species on the metallic Ru surface is responsible for the superb electrocatalytic performance and that the borate species are the source of Cl⁻ corrosion resistance. These findings provide new perspectives for the design of high-performance electrocatalysts for seawater splitting.

中文翻译：

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表面羟基和硼酸盐修饰的钌纳米粒子通过增加亲水性来促进整体海水分解

利用海水电解制氢面临着几个严峻的挑战，包括氯阴离子（Cl-）引起的腐蚀导致电催化剂快速失活。我们已经证明，具有丰富表面羟基和硼酸盐物质（Ru-BOx-OH）的Ru纳米粒子作为海水分解电催化剂具有高活性和稳定性。研究中发现的最佳电催化剂（Ru-BOx-OH-300）对碱性海水中的析氢（HER）和析氧（OER）反应（HER，22 mV 和 OER，235 mV @ 10 mA cm-2)，以及低电池电压 (1.47 V) 和超长期稳定性（1000 小时@10、50 和 100 mA cm-2），适用于整体海水分解。此外，基于Ru-BOx-OH-300的阴离子交换膜海水电解槽仅需1.73或1.95 V即可分别达到500或1000 mA cm-2的电流密度，并且在400小时内表现出优异的稳定性而没有明显的衰减。实验和理论计算结果表明，金属Ru表面存在羟基和硼酸盐物质，导致Ru-BOx-OH-300具有高水亲和力，从而实现了优异的电催化性能，而硼酸盐物质是其优异的电催化性能的原因。 Cl-耐腐蚀性的来源。这些发现为海水分解高性能电催化剂的设计开辟了新的视角。