Oxygen evolution on Ru1-xNixO2-y nanocrystalline electrodes

Nanocrystalline Ru1-xNixO2-y with 0.02<0.30 were prepared by a sol-gel approach at temperatures between 300 and 600 degrees C. XRD patterns of the prepared materials indicate a single-phase character conforming to a tetragonal syngony. All prepared materials are sufficiently stable in acid media and show activity towards oxygen evolution. The activity towards oxygen evolution reaction of the materials with constant chemical composition decreases with increasing particle size. The increasing Ni content enhances the electrocatalytic activity in a stepwise manner with abrupt changes for materials containing approximately 5% or 15% of the cationic sites substituted by Ni.