Wang Mingming, Li Xinyi, Wang Zhongfeng, Huang Hong, Sun Xiaoyuan, Chen Hailong, Luo Hao, Li Lu, Zou Xiaoxin, Zhao Xiao
Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials of MOE, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China.
State Key Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Preparative Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China.
Nano Lett. 2025 Aug 6;25(31):12009-12018. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c02815. Epub 2025 Jul 26.
Affordable, active, and durable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts are crucial for proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE). The low-cost RuO, relative to IrO, is attractive for acidic OER while suffering from durability. To resolve this activity-stability dilemma of RuO, we propose a universal nonmetal-metal strategy to reduce Ru-O covalency while promoting local reactive water concentration for efficient acidic OER. The nonmetal-metal dual-dopant via complementary regulation of O 2 and Ru 4 bands weakens the Ru-O covalency, constraining the lattice oxygen participation and Ru dissolution. Operando evidence further unravels that the best-performing B-Cr-RuO, via surface OH, increases the local reactive water concentration and the connectivity of H-bond networks, enabling an order of magnitude enhancement in intrinsic activity without sacrificing durability over RuO. Consequently, the B-Cr-RuO-incorporated PEMWE delivers attractive performance for practical applications, requiring a voltage of only 1.54 V@1.0 A cm and maintaining a durable operation at industrial current densities.
