Water electrolysis has been considered a promising approach for the efficient and green production of hydrogen as a clean and sustainable energy source, yet limited by the sluggish kinetics of the anodic oxygen evolution reaction. The coupling of cathodic hydrogen evolution (HER) with anodic alcohol oxidation (AOR) could reduce the overpotential and energy consumption of overall water electrolysis. However, it is challenging to design and prepare catalysts that can simultaneously meet the requirements of HER and AOR.
Here, we have developed mesoporous palladium nanosheets modified with a submonolayer of ruthenium as a new multifunctional catalyst. Benefited by the highly exposed active sites and enhanced atomic utilization efficiency, the developed catalyst delivers excellent performance for both HER and AOR, requiring significantly lower overpotential for HER and showing superior mass activities as well as durability for AOR compared to commercial counterparts. We found that the ruthenium step sites facilitate water adsorption, dissociation, and hydrogen desorption, explaining the superior HER performance. Moreover, the developed catalyst preferentially generates glycolic acid during ethylene glycol oxidation reaction with high Faraday efficiency, highlighting the potential for coupled hydrogen production and value-added chemical synthesis.
This study showcases submonolayer modification as a powerful strategy for the design of multifunctional catalysts, providing a favorable pathway toward clean energy production. The work titled “Submonolayered Ru-Modified Pd Mesoporous Nanosheets as Multifunctional Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Evolution and Alcohol Oxidation Reactions”, was published in Advanced Powder Materials (Available online on 9 July 2025).

DOI：https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmate.2025.100320