Extremely Active Hydrogen Evolution Catalyst Electrochemically Generated from a Ruthenium-Based Perovskite-Type Precursor

Abstract

Water splitting requires highly active, easily prepared, and inexpensive electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, we report that Ru-based compounds, which are electrochemically generated from a simple perovskite oxide, SrRuO3, exhibit remarkably high HER activity in 1 M KOH solution, and the overpotential of HER is 0.11 V, representing the best performance among all of the reported perovskite-type catalysts. In addition, the activity surpasses that of the state-of-the-art Pt/C catalyst after repeated HER measurements. Hence, SrRuO3 is a promising electrochemical precursor for an efficient electrocatalyst for water splitting application.