Boosting the durability of RuO via confinement effect for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer.

Ruthenium dioxide has attracted extensive attention as a promising catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction in acid. However, the over-oxidation of RuO into soluble HRuO species results in a poor durability, which hinders the practical application of RuO in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis. Here, we report a confinement strategy by enriching a high local concentration of in-situ formed HRuO species, which can effectively suppress the RuO degradation by shifting the redox equilibrium away from the RuO over-oxidation, greatly boosting its durability during acidic oxygen evolution.

Oxyanion Engineering on RuO for Efficient Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis.

In acidic proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE), the anode oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts rely heavily on the expensive and scarce iridium-based materials. Ruthenium dioxide (RuO) with lower price and higher OER activity, has been explored for the similar task, but has been restricted by the poor stability. Herein, we developed an anion modification strategy to improve the OER performance of RuO in acidic media.