Engineering high-density microcrystalline boundary with V-doped RuO2 for high-performance oxygen evolution in acid
Abstract 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)....
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-59472-0 |
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| Summary: | Abstract 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-2 geo 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. As a result, the adsorbate evolution mechanism pathway becomes dominant, even at high current densities. Density functional theory analyses confirm that GBs can stabilize V dopant and that the synergy between them modulates the electronic structure of RuO2, thus optimizing the adsorption of OER intermediate species and enhancing electrocatalyst stability. Our work demonstrates a rational strategy for overcoming the traditional activity/stability dilemma, offering good prospects of developing high-performance acidic OER catalysts. |
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| ISSN: | 2041-1723 |