Grain Boundary Oxygen Improving the Acidic Oxygen Evolution Reaction of Zn-RuO<sub>2</sub>@ZnO
The lattice oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the currently predominant mechanism, while the grain boundary (GB) OER is still the enigma. This study proposes the grain boundary oxygen mechanism (GBOM) and validates it using Zn-RuO<sub>2</sub>@ZnO in OER. An optimal GB density in Zn-RuO<sub>2</sub>@ZnO achieves an overpotential of 170 mV and 600 h durability at 10 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>. As an anode catalyst in proton-exchange membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWEs), Zn-RuO<sub>2</sub>@ZnO exhibits exceptional stability (>300 h at 500 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>) and high efficiency, requiring only 1.68 V to deliver 1 A cm<sup>-2</sup> under 60 °C. Notably, the reduced symmetry at GBs enhances the Ru 4<i>d</i><sub><i>xy</i></sub>-O 2<i>p</i> hybridization, manifested as a distinct antiferromagnetic state, which activates the GBOM pathway and stabilizes its operation through electron transfer into lower-energy orbitals. Our findings highlight that GBs with antiferromagnetic characteristics offer an intriguing design strategy for developing highly active and stable OER catalysts.
Authors
- Tong‐Yi Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9646-9668)
- Sihao Deng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5142-3519)
- Qin Yin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3534-3786)
- Lunhua He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0531-2148)
- Kaikai Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4237-8696)
- Xiaoye Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9751-8487)
- Zilin Yan
Institutions
- Shanghai University (CN)
- Entrust (GB)
- Shenzhen University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Harbin Institute of Technology (CN)
- China Spallation Neutron Source (CN)
- Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory (CN)
- Department of Physics, Mathematics and Informatics (BY)
- Guangzhou Municipal Engineering Design and Research Institute (CN)
- FZU ‒ Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (CZ)
- Institute of High Energy Physics (CN)
- Shenzhen Technology University (CN)
- Institute of Physics (CN)
- Shenzhen MSU-BIT University
- Spallation Neutron Source
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of the American Chemical Society
- Published
- 2025-08-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c08187
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.54
Funders
- Science and Technology Foundation of Shenzhen City
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Shenzhen Fundamental Research Program
- Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Project
- Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province