Locking the lattice oxygen in RuO<sub>2</sub> to stabilize highly active Ru sites in acidic water oxidation.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 38509091.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-46815-6 and PMC identifier 10954744.
- 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
Ruthenium dioxide is presently the most active catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in acidic media but suffers from severe Ru dissolution resulting from the high covalency of Ru-O bonds triggering lattice oxygen oxidation. Here, we report an interstitial silicon-doping strategy to stabilize the highly active Ru sites of RuO<sub>2</sub> while suppressing lattice oxygen oxidation. The representative Si-RuO<sub>2</sub>-0.1 catalyst exhibits high activity and stability in acid with a negligible degradation rate of ~52 μV h<sup>-1</sup> in an 800 h test and an overpotential of 226 mV at 10 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>. Differential electrochemical mass spectrometry (DEMS) results demonstrate that the lattice oxygen oxidation pathway of the Si-RuO<sub>2</sub>-0.1 was suppressed by ∼95% compared to that of commercial RuO<sub>2</sub>, which is highly responsible for the extraordinary stability. This work supplied a unique mentality to guide future developments on Ru-based oxide catalysts' stability in an acidic environment.