Boosting the durability of RuO2 via confinement effect for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer
Abstract Ruthenium dioxide has attracted extensive attention as a promising catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction in acid. However, the over-oxidation of RuO2 into soluble H2RuO5 species results in a poor durability, which hinders the practical application of RuO2 in proton exchange membrane water...
| Published in: | Nature Communications |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-01-01
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55747-0 |
| _version_ | 1849738535758725120 |
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| author | Wen-Xing Zheng Xuan-Xuan Cheng Ping-Ping Chen Lin-Lin Wang Ying Duan Guo-Jin Feng Xiao-Ran Wang Jing-Jing Li Chao Zhang Zi-You Yu Tong-Bu Lu |
| author_facet | Wen-Xing Zheng Xuan-Xuan Cheng Ping-Ping Chen Lin-Lin Wang Ying Duan Guo-Jin Feng Xiao-Ran Wang Jing-Jing Li Chao Zhang Zi-You Yu Tong-Bu Lu |
| author_sort | Wen-Xing Zheng |
| collection | DOAJ |
| container_title | Nature Communications |
| description | Abstract Ruthenium dioxide has attracted extensive attention as a promising catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction in acid. However, the over-oxidation of RuO2 into soluble H2RuO5 species results in a poor durability, which hinders the practical application of RuO2 in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis. Here, we report a confinement strategy by enriching a high local concentration of in-situ formed H2RuO5 species, which can effectively suppress the RuO2 degradation by shifting the redox equilibrium away from the RuO2 over-oxidation, greatly boosting its durability during acidic oxygen evolution. Therefore, the confined RuO2 catalyst can continuously operate at 10 mA cm–2 for over 400 h with negligible attenuation, and has a 14.8 times higher stability number than the unconfined RuO2 catalyst. An electrolyzer cell using the confined RuO2 catalyst as anode displays a notable durability of 300 h at 500 mA cm–2 and at 60 °C. This work demonstrates a promising design strategy for durable oxygen evolution reaction catalysts in acid via confinement engineering. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4b7cd46db3bc462f8edb73f06f8d8b2a |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Journals |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| spelling | doaj-art-4b7cd46db3bc462f8edb73f06f8d8b2a2025-08-20T01:47:58ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-01-011611910.1038/s41467-024-55747-0Boosting the durability of RuO2 via confinement effect for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzerWen-Xing Zheng0Xuan-Xuan Cheng1Ping-Ping Chen2Lin-Lin Wang3Ying Duan4Guo-Jin Feng5Xiao-Ran Wang6Jing-Jing Li7Chao Zhang8Zi-You Yu9Tong-Bu Lu10MOE International Joint Laboratory of Materials Microstructure, Institute for New Energy Materials and Low Carbon Technologies, School of Materials Science & Engineering, Tianjin University of TechnologyMOE International Joint Laboratory of Materials Microstructure, Institute for New Energy Materials and Low Carbon Technologies, School of Materials Science & Engineering, Tianjin University of TechnologyMOE International Joint Laboratory of Materials Microstructure, Institute for New Energy Materials and Low Carbon Technologies, School of Materials Science & Engineering, Tianjin University of TechnologyMOE International Joint Laboratory of Materials Microstructure, Institute for New Energy Materials and Low Carbon Technologies, School of Materials Science & Engineering, Tianjin University of TechnologyMOE International Joint Laboratory of Materials Microstructure, Institute for New Energy Materials and Low Carbon Technologies, School of Materials Science & Engineering, Tianjin University of TechnologyMOE International Joint Laboratory of Materials Microstructure, Institute for New Energy Materials and Low Carbon Technologies, School of Materials Science & Engineering, Tianjin University of TechnologyMOE International Joint Laboratory of Materials Microstructure, Institute for New Energy Materials and Low Carbon Technologies, School of Materials Science & Engineering, Tianjin University of TechnologyMOE International Joint Laboratory of Materials Microstructure, Institute for New Energy Materials and Low Carbon Technologies, School of Materials Science & Engineering, Tianjin University of TechnologyMOE International Joint Laboratory of Materials Microstructure, Institute for New Energy Materials and Low Carbon Technologies, School of Materials Science & Engineering, Tianjin University of TechnologyMOE International Joint Laboratory of Materials Microstructure, Institute for New Energy Materials and Low Carbon Technologies, School of Materials Science & Engineering, Tianjin University of TechnologyMOE International Joint Laboratory of Materials Microstructure, Institute for New Energy Materials and Low Carbon Technologies, School of Materials Science & Engineering, Tianjin University of TechnologyAbstract Ruthenium dioxide has attracted extensive attention as a promising catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction in acid. However, the over-oxidation of RuO2 into soluble H2RuO5 species results in a poor durability, which hinders the practical application of RuO2 in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis. Here, we report a confinement strategy by enriching a high local concentration of in-situ formed H2RuO5 species, which can effectively suppress the RuO2 degradation by shifting the redox equilibrium away from the RuO2 over-oxidation, greatly boosting its durability during acidic oxygen evolution. Therefore, the confined RuO2 catalyst can continuously operate at 10 mA cm–2 for over 400 h with negligible attenuation, and has a 14.8 times higher stability number than the unconfined RuO2 catalyst. An electrolyzer cell using the confined RuO2 catalyst as anode displays a notable durability of 300 h at 500 mA cm–2 and at 60 °C. This work demonstrates a promising design strategy for durable oxygen evolution reaction catalysts in acid via confinement engineering.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55747-0 |
| spellingShingle | Wen-Xing Zheng Xuan-Xuan Cheng Ping-Ping Chen Lin-Lin Wang Ying Duan Guo-Jin Feng Xiao-Ran Wang Jing-Jing Li Chao Zhang Zi-You Yu Tong-Bu Lu Boosting the durability of RuO2 via confinement effect for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer |
| title | Boosting the durability of RuO2 via confinement effect for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer |
| title_full | Boosting the durability of RuO2 via confinement effect for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer |
| title_fullStr | Boosting the durability of RuO2 via confinement effect for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer |
| title_full_unstemmed | Boosting the durability of RuO2 via confinement effect for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer |
| title_short | Boosting the durability of RuO2 via confinement effect for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer |
| title_sort | boosting the durability of ruo2 via confinement effect for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55747-0 |
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