Ultrasmall Strained RuO<sub>2</sub> as a Highly Efficient Electrocatalyst for Acidic Oxygen Evolution Reaction.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40624867.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c02680.
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Abstract
The development of noniridium electrocatalysts toward acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is essential for designing efficient proton-exchange-membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWEs) for hydrogen production. Ruthenium oxide has long been expected as a promising candidate but still suffers from inadequate durability. Here we deploy a strain engineering strategy to improve the OER performance. Density functional theory calculations demonstrate that introducing tensile strain into the RuO<sub>2</sub> lattice can concurrently optimize the adsorption behavior and enhance the structural stability. Experimentally, we successfully synthesized tensile-strained RuO<sub>2</sub> nanoparticles via a graphene oxide confinement method. This catalyst exhibits a low-record overpotential of 136 mV and a high durability over 160 h at 10 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> in acidic media. When integrated into a PEMWE device, an exceptional water splitting performance is achieved with a large current density of 3.45 A cm<sup>-2</sup> at 1.8 V and a long-term operation at 0.2 A cm<sup>-2</sup> for 120 h, suggesting its potential for practical applications.