Ru-doped functional porous materials for electrocatalytic water splitting

Electrolytic water splitting (EWS) is an attractive and promising technique for the production of hydrogen energy. Nevertheless, the sluggish kinetic rate of hydrogen/oxygen evolution reactions leads to a high overpotential and low energy efficiency. Up to date, Pt/Ir-based nanocatalysts have become the state-of-the-art EWS catalysts, but disadvantages such as high cost and low earth abundance greatly limit their applications in EWS devices. As an attractive candidate for the Pt/Ir catalysts, series of Ru-based nanomaterials have aroused much attention for their low price, Pt-like hydrogen bond strength, and high EWS activity. In particular, Ru-doped functional porous materials have been becoming one of the most representative EWS catalysts, which can not only achieve the dispersion and adjustment for active Ru sites, but also simultaneously solve the problems of mass transfer and catalytic conversion in EWS. In this review, the design and preparation strategies of Ru-doped functional porous materials toward EWS in recent years are summarized, including Ru-doped metal organic frameworks (MOFs), Ru-doped porous organic polymers (POPs), and their derivatives. Meanwhile, detailed structure–activity relationships induced by the tuned geometric/electronic structures of Ru-doped functional porous materials are further depicted in this review. Last but not least, the challenges and perspectives of Ru-doped functional porous materials catalysts are reasonably proposed to provide fresh ideas for the design of Ru-based EWS catalysts.