Y. Wang, R. Yang, Y.J. Ding, B. Zhang, H. Li, B. Bai, M.R. Li, Y. Cui, J.P. Xiao*, and Z.-S. Wu*
Nature Communications, 2023, 14.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37008-8 [PDF]
Exploring durable electrocatalysts with high activity for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in acidic media is of paramount importance for H2productionviapolymer electrolyte membrane electrolyzers, yet remains urgently challenging.Herein, we report a synergistic strategy of Rh doping and surface oxygen vacancies to precisely regulating unconventional OER reaction pathviathe Ru-O-Rh active sites of RuO2nanosheets, simultaneously boosting intrinsic activity and stability.The stabilized low-valent catalyst exhibits a remarkable performance, with an overpotential of 161 mV at 10 mA·cm−2and activity retention of 99.2% exceeding 700 h at50 mA cm−2. Quasiin situ/operando characterizations demonstrate the recurrence of reversible oxygen species under working potentials for enhanced activity and durability. It is theoretically revealed that Rh-RuO2passes through a more optimal reaction pathof lattice oxygen oxidation mechanism-oxygen vacancy site mechanisminduced by the synergistic interaction of defects and Ru−O−Rh active sites with the rate-determining step of *O formation, breaking the barrier limitation (*OOH) of the traditional adsorption evolution mechanism.
