Bifunctional ultrathin RhRu 0.5 alloy nanowire electrocatalysts for hydrazine assisted water splitting.

Hydrazine assisted water electrolysis offers a feasible path for low-voltage green hydrogen production. Herein w e report the design and synthesis of ultrathin RhRu 0.5 alloy wavy nanowires as bifunctional electrocatalysts for both anodic hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR) and cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). W e show that the RhRu 0.5 alloy wavy nanowires can achieve total electrooxidation of hydrazine with lower overpotential and high mass activity as well as improved performance for HER, which together, leads to ultrahigh performance for hydrazine assisted water electrolysis, with ultralow cell voltage of 54 mV at current density of 100 mA/cm 2 and ultrahigh current density of 853 mA/cm 2 at a cell voltage of 0.6 V. The resulting electrocatalysts further demonstrate a stable operation at a high current density of 100 mA/cm 2 for 80 hours of testing period with little degradation. The overall performance not only far exceeds the performances of the previously reported hydrazine assisted water electrolyzers, but also equivalent to a high turnover frequency (TOF) value of 1618/h for catalytic hydrazine decomposition at room temperature, which outperforms many previously reported catalysts (TOF < 500/h at room temperature). This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.