Temperature-dependent mechanism evolution on RhRu3Ox for acidic water oxidation
The oxygen evolution reaction, as the anodic reaction of many electrochemical devices, plays a crucial role in energy conversion. However, the insufficient stability of non-iridium-based materials during the oxygen evolution reaction has severely limited the large-scale application of such devices. Here, using a home-made operando differential electrochemical mass spectrometry system, we show a temperature dependent mechanism evolution effect of RhRu<sub>3</sub>O<sub>x</sub> in the oxygen evolution process, which highlights the role of temperature in triggering mechanism evolution. This effect enriches the strategies for pathway manipulation. Since different kinetic pathways can influence catalyst stability, this finding suggests that temperature-dependent pathway regulation may serve as an approach to optimize stability. To evaluate the potential of RhRu<sub>3</sub>O<sub>x</sub> for practical applications, we assemble it into a proton exchange membrane electrolyzer and demonstrate its stability at room temperature for over 1000 hours at a current density of 200 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>. Density functional theory studies suggest that the existence of a kinetic barrier related to lattice oxygen activation might be the reason for the observed temperature dependent behavior of RhRu<sub>3</sub>O<sub>x</sub> at elevated temperatures.
Authors
- Jie Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4506-9701)
- Hengli Duan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4235-1450)
- Heng Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7272-3908)
- Sheng Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2301-7601)
- Wensheng Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6297-4589)
- Xiaozhi Su (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8658-4056)
- Sihua Feng
- Shu‐Hong Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3732-1011)
- Hao Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7577-1366)
- Ruiqi Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-9113-7327)
- Yingkang Qin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3096-9345)
- Ming‐Rong Qu
- Rui Wu
Institutions
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Wenzhou University (CN)
- Tohoku University (JP)
- Southern University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Hefei National Center for Physical Sciences at Nanoscale (CN)
- Shanghai Advanced Research Institute (CN)
- National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (CN)
- China National Petroleum Corporation (China) (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-10-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64286-1
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.45
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- University of Science and Technology of China
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- National Key Research and Development Program of China
- Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University
- Division of Materials Research