A Co-Doped Nanorod-like RuO2 Electrocatalyst with Abundant Oxygen Vacancies for Acidic Water Oxidation

• Published in: iScience Vol. 23; no. 1; p. 100756
• Main Authors: Tian, Yuanyuan, Wang, Shuo, Velasco, Ever, Yang, Yueping, Cao, Lujie, Zhang, Linjuan, Li, Xing, Lin, Yichao, Zhang, Qiuju, Chen, Liang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 24.01.2020; Elsevier
• Subjects: Catalysis; Electrochemical Energy Production; Nanomaterials; Nanomaterials; Electrochemical Energy Production; Catalysis
• ISSN: 2589-0042; 2589-0042
• DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2019.100756

Active and highly stable electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in acidic media are currently in high demand as a cleaner alternative to the combustion of fossil fuels. Herein, we report a Co-doped nanorod-like RuO2 electrocatalyst with an abundance of oxygen vacancies achieved through the facile, one-step annealing of a Ru-exchanged ZIF-67 derivative. The compound exhibits ultra-high OER performance in acidic media, with a low overpotential of 169 mV at 10 mA cm−2 while maintaining excellent activity, even when exposed to a 50-h galvanostatic stability test at a constant current of 10 mA cm−2. The dramatic enhancement in OER performance is mainly attributed to the abundance of oxygen vacancies and modulated electronic structure of the Co-doped RuO2 that rely on a vacancy-related lattice oxygen oxidation mechanism (LOM) rather than adsorbate evolution reaction mechanism (AEM), as revealed and supported by experimental characterizations as well as density functional theory (DFT) calculations. [Display omitted] •A Co-doped RuO2 electrocatalyst with an abundance of oxygen vacancies was synthesized•The compound exhibits ultra-high OER performance in acidic media•The oxygen vacancies contribute to the high OER performance Catalysis; Electrochemical Energy Production; Nanomaterials