Seed-assisted synthesis of fcc Ru–Cu bimetallic nanostructures and their catalytic properties for the hydrogen evolution reaction

Adjusting the chemical composition and/or crystal structures is an important approach to tune the activity of catalysts. Herein, we reported a facile one-step synthesis procedure of Ru–Cu bimetallic nanostructures with the fcc phase, in which the growth of fcc-Ru was induced by the fcc-Cu seeds. By controlling the proportion of the Cu2+and Ru3+ precursors, Cux–Ru1−x with varied compositions of Ru and Cu including pure fcc-Cu nanocrystals and hcp-Ru nanocrystals could be prepared. The catalytic performance of the as-prepared Cux–Ru1−x nanocrystals for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) was studied, which showed very promising long-term HER activity in an acidic environment, with an overpotential as low as 67 mV at 10 mA cm−2 for 13 hour testing obtained in the Cu0.25–Ru0.75 nanostructures.