Heteroatom dopants overcome the activity-stability trade-off in RuO<sub>2</sub> for acidic oxygen evolution.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40691160.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-62036-x and PMC identifier 12279930.
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Abstract
The pursuit of RuO<sub>2</sub> as an alternative acidic oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalyst to IrO<sub>2</sub> holds great promise, yet simultaneously achieving highly active and stable RuO<sub>2</sub> remains an urgent challenge, as conventional strategies often boost one property at the expense of the other. Here, we successfully construct Ta and B co-doped nanoporous RuO<sub>2</sub> with Ru-O-Ta frameworks and Ru-O-B active sites to overcome the activity-stability trade-off. The Ru-O-Ta frameworks stabilize the Ru sites by mediating bridging oxygen and preferentially replenishing oxygen vacancies, thereby facilitating the oxygen evolution reaction through the adsorbate evolution mechanism. Concurrently, the Ru-O-Ta/B sites not only switch the rate-determining step but also lower the energy barriers, thereby enhancing catalytic activity. The Ta/B-RuO<sub>2</sub> exhibits a low overpotential of 170 mV at 10 mA cm<sup>-</sup><sup>2</sup>, a favorable Tafel slope of 44 mV dec<sup>-1</sup>, and an outstanding durability. We demonstrate that proton-exchange membrane water electrolyzers equipped with Ta/B-RuO<sub>2</sub> achieves a current density of 1.0 A cm<sup>-2</sup> at a low voltage of 1.6 V and maintains stable operation for 120 h at 200 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>.