Ionic Liquid Dopant Induced Abundant Ni-Vacancies in N, B, F Tri-Doped NiSe2/Mo2CTx Stabilizing of Single-Atom Ru for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reactions and Flexible Zn-Air Batteries

Cation vacancies are essential for stabilizing single atoms, but there is relatively little research on how to generate large numbers of cation vacancies. In this study, we present a method for doping transition metal compounds (NiSe2) loaded on Mo2CTx with heteroatoms. Ionic liquids were used to create cationic vacancies in NiSe2 to successfully stabilize a dense Ru single-atom (Ru/NBF-NiSe2/Mo2CTx), which exhibited overpotentials of 30 and 39 mV in acidic and alkaline solutions at a current density of 10 mA cm(-2). What is more, Ru/NBF-NiSe2/Mo2CTx had the lowest overpotential (1.558 V) in the OER test at a current density of 10 mA cm(-2) and a high half-wave potential (0.912 V) in the ORR test at 1600 rpm. It also has excellent performance when constructed into Zn-air batteries. This design provides a simple technique for creating cationic vacancies to stabilize single atoms in transition-metal compounds.