Oxidation-resistant AgRuIr alloy nanocages for efficient and enduring oxygen evolution in proton exchange membrane electrolysis.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 41980985.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-026-71943-6.
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Abstract
The global transition to a hydrogen economy relies on efficient and durable catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction within proton exchange membrane water electrolysis. Conventional metal oxide catalysts, particularly RuO<sub>2</sub>, suffer from overoxidation and corrosion under acidic and high-potential conditions, limiting operational lifetime. Here we report a metallic catalyst composed of metastable AgRuIr alloy nanocages that challenge the prevailing view that metallic materials are unsuitable for this reaction. Mechanistically, the filled d orbitals of Ag reduce the oxophilicity of the alloy, weakening oxygen adsorption and preventing oxygen incorporation into the metal lattice. As a result, the nanocages exhibit higher activity than Ru/Ir oxides while maintaining a metallic state at high potentials, thereby fundamentally suppressing overoxidation. In a water electrolysis cell, the catalyst delivers 1 A cm<sup>-2</sup> at a cell voltage of 1.73 V and operates stably for 1500 hours with negligible voltage increase (0.93 μV h<sup>-1</sup>) and minimal metal dissolution (0.5-0.7% kh<sup>-1</sup>). These results redefine the potential of metallic catalysts for oxygen evolution in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis systems toward large-scale hydrogen production.