Dopant-free stabilization of ruthenium oxide <i>via</i> metallic Ru-induced d-orbital modulation for acidic water electrolysis

Proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) is a cornerstone technology for carbon-neutral hydrogen production, yet its scalability is constrained by the intrinsic activity-stability trade-off of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts. To overcome this challenge, we design a Ru/RuO<sub>2</sub> heterostructure by integrating metallic Ru to modulate the d-orbital electron density of RuO<sub>2</sub>. The metallic Ru domains suppress lattice oxygen migration (LOM) while enhancing electron delocalization. The e<sub>g</sub> orbital filling shifts the Ru 4d-band center downward, reducing the adsorption strength of reaction intermediates (*OH, *O, and *OOH). The optimized Ru/RuO<sub>2</sub> electrocatalyst achieves an overpotential of 181 mV at 10 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> in 0.5 M H<sub>2</sub>SO<sub>4</sub> and exhibits stable performance for 260 hours with minimal degradation rate (0.065 mV h<sup>-1</sup>). In the PEMWE device, it lowers the cell voltage from 1.88 V (RuO<sub>2</sub>) to 1.68 V (Ru/RuO<sub>2</sub>) at 1 A cm<sup>-2</sup>, exhibiting negligible performance loss over 120 hours. This work introduces a dopant-free electronic engineering strategy that advances the design of stable, high performance pure Ru-based anodic catalysts for energy conversion technologies.

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Publication Details

Journal
Chemical Science
Published
2026-01-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/d5sc08602g
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
9.79

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article

Dopant-free stabilization of ruthenium oxide via metallic Ru-induced d-orbital modulation for acidic water electrolysis

Lingzhi Zhu, Chao Lin, Xiaopeng Li, Xiaotong Wu et al.
1 citations
Chemical Science
Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
9.79
article

Dopant-free stabilization of ruthenium oxide via metallic Ru-induced d-orbital modulation for acidic water electrolysis

Lingzhi Zhu, Chao Lin, Xiaopeng Li, Xiaotong Wu, Jingsan Xu, Jin Tian, Faiza Meharban, Qiuju Zhang, Lei Tan, Wei Luo, Tiantian Su
article en
1 citations

Abstract

Proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) is a cornerstone technology for carbon-neutral hydrogen production, yet its scalability is constrained by the intrinsic activity-stability trade-off of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts. To overcome this challenge, we design a Ru/RuO<sub>2</sub> heterostructure by integrating metallic Ru to modulate the d-orbital electron density of RuO<sub>2</sub>. The metallic Ru domains suppress lattice oxygen migration (LOM) while enhancing electron delocalization. The e<sub>g</sub> orbital filling shifts the Ru 4d-band center downward, reducing the adsorption strength of reaction intermediates (*OH, *O, and *OOH). The optimized Ru/RuO<sub>2</sub> electrocatalyst achieves an overpotential of 181 mV at 10 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> in 0.5 M H<sub>2</sub>SO<sub>4</sub> and exhibits stable performance for 260 hours with minimal degradation rate (0.065 mV h<sup>-1</sup>). In the PEMWE device, it lowers the cell voltage from 1.88 V (RuO<sub>2</sub>) to 1.68 V (Ru/RuO<sub>2</sub>) at 1 A cm<sup>-2</sup>, exhibiting negligible performance loss over 120 hours. This work introduces a dopant-free electronic engineering strategy that advances the design of stable, high performance pure Ru-based anodic catalysts for energy conversion technologies.

Chemical ScienceVol. 17(10)
Queensland University of Technology (AU), Donghua University (CN), Ningbo Institute of Industrial Technology (CN)
Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Program for Professor of Special Appointment (Eastern Scholar) at Shanghai Institutions of Higher Learning
Openalex Percentile: Top 6%
Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
9.79
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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