Facile and rapid synthesis of ultrafine RuCo bimetallic anchored in N-doped porous carbon for superior overall water-splitting performance in alkaline media

The development of economical, efficient, and stable bifunctional catalysts for simultaneous application in the electrocatalytic hydrogen reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is highly important. How to increase the specific surface area of the catalyst and increase the number of exposed active sites remains a challenge. In this work, a pyrolysis method to remove the template was used to prepare ultrafine bimetallic RuCo anchored in N-doped porous carbon with a high specific surface area. The HER and OER processes only require overpotentials of 12 and 178 mV, respectively, to reach a current density of 10 mA cm(-2). The electrolyzer with RuCo-PS-700 as both the cathode and anode can reach 10 mA cm(-2) with only a 1.46 V voltage in the process of overall water splitting. This excellent electrochemical performance is attributed mainly to the large surface area, high electrical conductivity, and nitrogen-doped electronic structure of the catalyst.