Interface engineering breaks both stability and activity limits of RuO2 for sustainable water oxidation

Kun Du, Lifu Zhang, Jieqiong Shan, Jiaxin Guo, Jing Mao, Chueh-Cheng Yang, Chia-Hsin Wang (), Zhenpeng Hu () and Tao Ling ()
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Kun Du: Tianjin University
Lifu Zhang: Nankai University
Jieqiong Shan: The University of Adelaide
Jiaxin Guo: Tianjin University
Jing Mao: Tianjin University
Chueh-Cheng Yang: National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center
Chia-Hsin Wang: National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center
Zhenpeng Hu: Nankai University
Tao Ling: Tianjin University

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Designing catalytic materials with enhanced stability and activity is crucial for sustainable electrochemical energy technologies. RuO2 is the most active material for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in electrolysers aiming at producing ‘green’ hydrogen, however it encounters critical electrochemical oxidation and dissolution issues during reaction. It remains a grand challenge to achieve stable and active RuO2 electrocatalyst as the current strategies usually enhance one of the two properties at the expense of the other. Here, we report breaking the stability and activity limits of RuO2 in neutral and alkaline environments by constructing a RuO2/CoOx interface. We demonstrate that RuO2 can be greatly stabilized on the CoOx substrate to exceed the Pourbaix stability limit of bulk RuO2. This is realized by the preferential oxidation of CoOx during OER and the electron gain of RuO2 through the interface. Besides, a highly active Ru/Co dual-atom site can be generated around the RuO2/CoOx interface to synergistically adsorb the oxygen intermediates, leading to a favourable reaction path. The as-designed RuO2/CoOx catalyst provides an avenue to achieve stable and active materials for sustainable electrochemical energy technologies.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33150-x

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