Engineering high-density microcrystalline boundary with V-doped RuO2 for high-performance oxygen evolution in acid

Designing efficient acidic oxygen evolution catalysts for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers is challenging due to a trade-off between activity and stability. In this work, we construct high-density microcrystalline grain boundaries (GBs) with V-dopant in RuO2 matrix (GB-V-RuO2). Our theoretical and experimental results indicate this is a highly active and acid-resistant OER catalyst. Specifically, the GB-V-RuO2 requires low overpotentials of 159, 222, and 300 mV to reach 10, 100, and 1500 mA cm-2geo in 0.5 M H2SO4, respectively. Operando EIS, ATR-SEIRAS FTIR and DEMS measurements reveal the importance of GBs in stabilizing lattice oxygen and thus inhibiting the lattice oxygen mediated OER pathway.…

• LT
  Leverhulme Trust
• RS
  Royal Society Te Apārangi
• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 51973200, 52202050, U24A2079, 52122308, 21905253
• CP
  China Postdoctoral Science Foundation

  Award: 2022TQ0286
• ZU
  Zhengzhou University
• NS
  Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province

  Award: 202300410372