Bulk OsO <sub>2</sub> Single Crystals: Superior Catalysts for Water Oxidation
ABSTRACT Although rutile RuO 2 has been a well‐known and almost the best oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalyst, the OER properties for the similar rutile oxide OsO 2 with the same group element with Ru have been unknown, mainly due to long‐standing synthesis difficulties. In this work, we report the successful synthesis of high‐quality OsO 2 single crystals, and the ground micrometer‐size single crystals are chemically stable in alkaline solutions and exhibit robust OER performance. In sharp contrast, OsO 2 nanopowder reacts quickly with KOH solutions and cannot work for OER. Compared with commercial RuO 2 nanopowder, the OsO 2 single crystals show comparable catalytic current densities, remarkably lower overpotentials at high current densities and better stability. These findings question the universal applicability of nanoscaling and highlight crystal integrity as a key descriptor for achieving stable and efficient OER electrocatalysis.
Authors
- Jingyu Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3123-6668)
- Hao Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1544-2066)
- Peixin Qin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-8889-3205)
- Qiang Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6662-1668)
- Sixu Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-8626-601X)
- Hongyu Chen
- Linlin Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1058-4551)
- Y.‐L. He
- Guojian Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7868-5094)
- Zhiyuan Duan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0138-7437)
- Zhihao Li
- Xiaoning Wang
- Ziang Meng
- Zhiqi Liu
- Xiaoyang Tan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-3953-5655)
Institutions
- FZU ‒ Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (CZ)
- National Laboratory for Superconductivity (CN)
- Beihang University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Functional Materials
- Published
- 2026-01-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202600044
- Primary Topic
- Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Beihang University
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
- National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities