Tantalum-stabilized ruthenium oxide electrocatalysts for industrial water electrolysis.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39745949.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/science.ado9938.
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Abstract
The iridium oxide (IrO<sub>2</sub>) catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction used industrially (in proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers) is scarce and costly. Although ruthenium oxide (RuO<sub>2</sub>) is a promising alternative, its poor stability has hindered practical application. We used well-defined extended surface models to identify that RuO<sub>2</sub> undergoes structure-dependent corrosion that causes Ru dissolution. Tantalum (Ta) doping effectively stabilized RuO<sub>2</sub> against such corrosion and enhanced the intrinsic activity of RuO<sub>2</sub>. In an industrial demonstration, Ta-RuO<sub>2</sub> electrocatalyst exhibited stability near that of IrO<sub>2</sub> and had a performance decay rate of ~14 microvolts per hour in a 2800-hour test. At current densities of 1 ampere per square centimeter, it had an overpotential 330 millivolts less than that of IrO<sub>2</sub>.