Semi-Crystalline Ruthenium Catalyst for Zero-Drag Hydrogen Production from Hybrid Alkaline Seawater Electrolysis

Dongquan Yang; Rui Yang; Huayi Zeng; Jiajun Luo; Shuangjuan Shen; Yiyin Huang; Yuanyuan Sun

doi:10.1002/advs.202507848

Semi-Crystalline Ruthenium Catalyst for Zero-Drag Hydrogen Production from Hybrid Alkaline Seawater Electrolysis

Adv Sci (Weinh). 2025 Jun 27:e07848. doi: 10.1002/advs.202507848. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Dongquan Yang^{1

2}, Rui Yang³, Huayi Zeng^{1

2}, Jiajun Luo^{1

2}, Shuangjuan Shen^{1

2}, Yiyin Huang^{1

2}, Yuanyuan Sun⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Physics and Energy, Fujian Normal University, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Quantum Manipulation and New Energy Materials, Fuzhou, 350117, P. R. China.
² Fujian Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Solar Energy Conversion and Energy Storage, Fuzhou, 350117, P. R. China.
³ School of Materials and Chemistry, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, 230036, P. R. China.
⁴ Institute of Innovation Materials and Energy, College of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225002, P. R. China.

PMID: 40577591
DOI: 10.1002/advs.202507848

Abstract

Hydrazine-assisted hybrid alkaline seawater electrolysis offers a dual-functional platform for environmentally benign remediation of toxic hydrazine and energy-autonomous hydrogen generation. Addressing the critical need for simplified system integration, a single-metal bifunctional catalyst is developed by modulating electronic metal-support interactions (EMSI) to construct semi-crystalline Ru domains with metastable crystalline-amorphous interfaces. The optimized catalyst achieves ultralow overpotentials of 21.5 mV (hydrogen evolution) and 254 mV (hydrazine oxidation) at 10 mA cm⁻², alongside spontaneous hydrazine decomposition at open-circuit potential. This synergy enables near-zero energy input for electrolysis, evidenced by a steep polarization slope (1.235 A cm⁻² V⁻¹), which surpasses conventional hybrid systems. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that amorphous Ru sites near the interface induce charge redistribution, which partially optimizes the free energy changes associated with adsorption ^*H and the dehydrogenation process from ^*N₂H₄ to ^*N₂H₃. This is accompanied by a transformation of the rate-determining step into the ^*N₂H → ^*N₂ pathway, thereby advancing the kinetics of the bifunctional hydrogen evolution reaction/hydrazine oxidation reaction (HER/HzOR) reactions. The work redefines catalyst design paradigms by leveraging interfacial metastability, bridging pollutant elimination with high-efficiency hydrogen economies.

Keywords: bifunctional; hydrogen evolution; interface; ruthenium; seawater electrolysis.