Engineering single atomic ruthenium on defective nickel vanadium layered double hydroxide for highly efficient hydrogen evolution

Fabricating single-atom catalysts (SACs) with high catalytic activity as well as great stability is a big challenge. Herein, we propose a precise synthesis strategy to stabilize single atomic ruthenium through regulating vanadium defects of nickel vanadium layered double hydroxides (NiV-LDH) ultrathin nanoribbons support. Correspondingly, the isolated atomically Ru doped NiV-LDH ultrathin nanoribbons (NiVRu-R) were successfully fabricated with a super-high Ru load of 12.8 wt.%. X-ray absorption spectrum (XAS) characterization further confirmed atomic dispersion of Ru. As catalysts for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline media, the NiVRu-R demonstrated superior catalytic properties to the commercial Pt/C. Moreover, it maintained exceptional stability even after 5,000 cyclic voltammetry cycles. In-situ XAS and density functional theory (DFT) calculations prove that the Ru atomic sites are stabilized on supports through forming the Ru-O-V structure, which also help promote the catalytic properties through reducing the energy barrier on atomic Ru catalytic sites.