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S incorporated RuO2-based nanorings for active and stable water oxidation in acid

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Abstract

The design of highly active and stable RuO2-based nanostructures for acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is extremely important for the development of water electrolysis technology, yet remains great challenges. We here demonstrate that the incorporation of S into RuCuO nanorings (NRs) can significantly enhance the acidic OER performance. Experimental investigations show that the incorporation of S can optimize the interaction of Ru and O, and therefore significantly suppresses the dissolution of Ru in acidic condition. The optimized catalyst (SH-RuCuO NRs) displays superior OER performance to the commercial RuO2/C. Impressively, the SH-RuCuO NRs can exhibit significantly enhanced stability for 3,000 cycles of cyclic voltammetry test and more than 250 h chronopotentiometry test at 10 mA·cm−2 in 0.5 M H2SO4. This work highlights a potential strategy for designing active and stable RuO2-based electrocatalysts for acidic OER.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Nos. 2017YFA0208200 and 2016YFA0204100), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22025108 and 51802206), Guangdong Provincial Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (No. 2021B1515020081), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD), and the start-up supports from Xiamen University and the Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Materials and Energy Storage Devices (No. 20195010002). XAS measurements were supported by “National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center” (NSRRC) and Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF), China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Qing Yao, Zhiyong Yu & Qi Shao

  2. State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    Qing Yao & Xiaoqing Huang

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, “National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University”, Hsinchu, Taiwan, 30010, China

    Ying-Hao Chu & Yu-Hong Lai

  4. “National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center”, 101 Hsin-Ann Road, Hsinchu, Taiwan, 30076, China

    Ting-Shan Chan

  5. Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Materials and Energy Storage Devices, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Energy Materials, School of Materials and Energy, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Yong Xu

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  1. Qing Yao
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Correspondence to Yong Xu or Xiaoqing Huang.

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Yao, Q., Yu, Z., Chu, YH. et al. S incorporated RuO2-based nanorings for active and stable water oxidation in acid. Nano Res. 15, 3964–3970 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4081-4

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