Effect of Cation and Anion Vacancies in Ruthenium Oxide on the Activity and Stability of Acidic Oxygen Evolution

Electrocatalysts capable of working efficiently in acidic media for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are highly demanded for the large-scale utilization of proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis. This study focuses on the design and fabrication of cation/oxygen vacancy-enriched RuO2 catalysts to investigate the impact of defect types on the OER activity and stability of RuO2. The comprehensive blend of experimental and theoretical approaches elucidates that the presence of Ru vacancies in Ru1–xO2 modulates the d-band center and optimizes the adsorption energy of the OER intermediates, thereby augmenting the intrinsic OER activity. Conversely, the presence of oxygen vacancies in RuO2-x diminishes…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 22209186, 22479149
• UD
  Universidade de Macau

  Awards: MYRG-GRG2023-00010-IAPME, MYRG2022-00026-IAPME
• YI
  Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

  Award: 2023343
• FP
  Fundo para o Desenvolvimento das Ciências e da Tecnologia

  Awards: 0050/2023/RIB2, 006/2022/ALC, 0023/2023/AFJ, 0111/2022/A2