Quadruple perovskite ruthenate as a highly efficient catalyst for acidic water oxidation.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31444337.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-11789-3 and PMC identifier 6707249.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Development of highly active and durable oxygen-evolving catalysts in acid media is a major challenge to design proton exchange membrane water electrolysis for producing hydrogen. Here, we report a quadruple perovskite oxide CaCu<sub>3</sub>Ru<sub>4</sub>O<sub>12</sub> as a superior catalyst for acidic water oxidation. This complex oxide exhibits an ultrasmall overpotential of 171 mV at 10 mA cm<sup>-2</sup><sub>geo</sub>, which is much lower than that of the state-of-the-art RuO<sub>2</sub>. Moreover, compared to RuO<sub>2</sub>, CaCu<sub>3</sub>Ru<sub>4</sub>O<sub>12</sub> shows a significant increase in mass activity by more than two orders of magnitude and much better stability. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the quadruple perovskite catalyst has a lower Ru 4d-band center relative to RuO<sub>2</sub>, which effectively optimizes the binding energy of oxygen intermediates and thereby enhances the catalytic activity.