Tuning hydrogen binding modes within RuO2 lattice by proton and electron co-doping for active and stable acidic oxygen evolution

Solid polymer electrolyzer (SPE), which directly uses pure water as electrolyte, holds great promise for green hydrogen production, yet developing a durable and active electrocatalyst for a protonrich anode remains a bottleneck issue owing to the high catalyst dissolution under polarization potential. Here, proton and electron co-doping was employed to construct an Ru-O-H sec sec sec O bond within RuO2 lattice, and the hydrogen binding modes not only engineered the electronic interaction between Ru and O atoms but also formed a hydrogen bond, which was demonstrated to be an effective way to increase the electrocatalytic activity and stabilize the lattice oxygen. The intrinsic activity of representative 75-HRuO2 loaded on a glassy carbon electrode was almost ten times that of the pristine one, only requiring an overpotential of 200 mV (@10 mA cm(-2)). Moreover, it demonstrated ideal stability (@0.5 A cm(-2)) in the SPE device.

Automated summary

Proton and electron co-doping was employed to construct an Ru-O-H bond within the RuO2 lattice, which increased the electrocatalytic activity and stabilized the lattice oxygen. The 75-HRuO2 catalyst demonstrated high activity and stability in the solid polymer electrolyzer.