Tao Jiawei, Fang Bin, Fang Ziyu, Lin Geyu, Ji Zhenyan, Gao Chenchen, Gao Ruiqin, Qiu Huibin
State Key Laboratory of Synergistic Chem-Bio Synthesis, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules, State Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Engineering Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
School of Biological and Chemical Engineering, NingboTech University, Ningbo, 315100, China.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2025 Aug 27:e202512348. doi: 10.1002/anie.202512348.
Although being considered as a promising alternative to iridium-based catalysts in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEM-WE), cost-effective ruthenium (Ru)-based anodic catalysts generally lack sufficient stability for harsh operating conditions. Here, we developed a facile method to fabricate erect nanoarrays of interweaved nanorods of zirconium-doped ruthenium oxide (ZrRuO) for long-term industrial-level oxygen evolution reaction (OER). This is accomplished by the spontaneous and abundant accumulation of Ru nanoparticles and Zr ions in pyridine-rich micellar brushes through coordination interactions, followed by direct calcination in air. The uniform dispersion of Ru and Zr precursors promotes the homogeneous doping of Zr in the resulting RuO nanoarray and the formation of Zr-O-Ru bridging oxygen structures. The oxophilic Zr strengthens the stability of the lattice oxygen and prevents its participation in OER. Meanwhile, it also leads to electron deficiency of the bridging Ru sites and facilitates the adsorption of HO molecules and the subsequent dissociation into *OH, thus enhancing the OER stability and activity. Notably, the nanoarray architecture synergistically restricts the voltage loss caused by electron and mass transport. Consequently, the ZrRuO-nanoarrays enabled a remarkably low PEM-WE potential of 1.64 V at 1.2 A cm with a negligible degradation rate (26 µV h, over 1000 h).
