Boosting the durability of RuO2 via confinement effect for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer

Wen-Xing Zheng, Xuan-Xuan Cheng, Ping-Ping Chen, Lin-Lin Wang, Ying Duan, Guo-Jin Feng, Xiao-Ran Wang, Jing-Jing Li, Chao Zhang, Zi-You Yu () and Tong-Bu Lu ()
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Wen-Xing Zheng: Tianjin University of Technology
Xuan-Xuan Cheng: Tianjin University of Technology
Ping-Ping Chen: Tianjin University of Technology
Lin-Lin Wang: Tianjin University of Technology
Ying Duan: Tianjin University of Technology
Guo-Jin Feng: Tianjin University of Technology
Xiao-Ran Wang: Tianjin University of Technology
Jing-Jing Li: Tianjin University of Technology
Chao Zhang: Tianjin University of Technology
Zi-You Yu: Tianjin University of Technology
Tong-Bu Lu: Tianjin University of Technology

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Ruthenium dioxide has attracted extensive attention as a promising catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction in acid. However, the over-oxidation of RuO2 into soluble H2RuO5 species results in a poor durability, which hinders the practical application of RuO2 in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis. Here, we report a confinement strategy by enriching a high local concentration of in-situ formed H2RuO5 species, which can effectively suppress the RuO2 degradation by shifting the redox equilibrium away from the RuO2 over-oxidation, greatly boosting its durability during acidic oxygen evolution. Therefore, the confined RuO2 catalyst can continuously operate at 10 mA cm–2 for over 400 h with negligible attenuation, and has a 14.8 times higher stability number than the unconfined RuO2 catalyst. An electrolyzer cell using the confined RuO2 catalyst as anode displays a notable durability of 300 h at 500 mA cm–2 and at 60 °C. This work demonstrates a promising design strategy for durable oxygen evolution reaction catalysts in acid via confinement engineering.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-55747-0

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