Doping Ti into RuO<sub>2</sub> to Accelerate Bridged-Oxygen-Assisted Deprotonation for Acidic Oxygen Evolution Reaction.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39614718.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1002/adma.202411709.
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Abstract
The development of efficient and durable electrocatalysts for the acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is essential for advancing renewable hydrogen energy technology. However, the slow deprotonation kinetics of oxo-intermediates, involving the four proton-coupled electron steps, hinder the acidic OER progress. Herein, a RuTiO<sub>x</sub> solid solution electrocatalyst is investigated, which features bridged oxygen (O<sub>bri</sub>) sites that act as proton acceptors, accelerating the deprotonation of oxo-intermediates. Electrochemical tests, infrared spectroscopy, and density functional theory results reveal that the moderate proton adsorption energy on O<sub>bri</sub> sites facilitates fast deprotonation kinetics through the adsorbate evolution mechanism. This process effectively prevents the over-oxidation and deactivation of Ru sites caused by the lattice oxygen mechanism. Consequently, RuTiO<sub>x</sub> shows a low overpotential of 198 mV at 10 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> <sub>geo</sub> and performance exceeding 1400 h at 50 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> <sub>geo</sub> with negligible deactivation. These insights into the OER mechanism and the structure-function relationship are crucial for the advancement of catalytic systems.