Undoped ruthenium oxide as a stable catalyst for the acidic oxygen evolution reaction

Jiayi Tang; Daqin Guan; Hengyue Xu; Leqi Zhao; Ushtar Arshad; Zijun Fang; Tianjiu Zhu; Manjin Kim; Chi-Wen Pao; Zhiwei Hu; Junjie Ge; Zongping Shao

doi:10.1038/s41467-025-56188-z

Undoped ruthenium oxide as a stable catalyst for the acidic oxygen evolution reaction

Nat Commun. 2025 Jan 18;16(1):801. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-56188-z.

Authors

Jiayi Tang¹, Daqin Guan¹, Hengyue Xu², Leqi Zhao¹, Ushtar Arshad¹, Zijun Fang¹, Tianjiu Zhu^{1

3}, Manjin Kim⁴, Chi-Wen Pao⁵, Zhiwei Hu⁶, Junjie Ge^{7

8}, Zongping Shao⁹

Affiliations

¹ WA School of Mines: Minerals, Energy and Chemical Engineering (WASM-MECE), Curtin University, Perth, WA, 6102, Australia.
² Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
³ School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, 4072, Australia.
⁴ John de Laeter Centre, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA, 6845, Australia.
⁵ National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center 101 Hsin-Ann Road, Hsinchu, 30076, Taiwan.
⁶ Max-Planck-Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids Nöthnitzer Str. 40, 01187, Dresden, Germany.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytic Chemistry, Jilin Province Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Chemistry Power, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, China.
⁸ School of Applied Chemistry and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China.
⁹ WA School of Mines: Minerals, Energy and Chemical Engineering (WASM-MECE), Curtin University, Perth, WA, 6102, Australia. [email protected].

PMID: 39824866
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56188-z

Abstract

Reducing green hydrogen production cost is critical for its widespread application. Proton-exchange-membrane water electrolyzers are among the most promising technologies, and significant research has been focused on developing more active, durable, and cost-effective catalysts to replace expensive iridium in the anode. Ruthenium oxide is a leading alternative while its stability is inadequate. While considerable progress has been made in designing doped Ru oxides and composites to improve stability, the uncertainty in true failure mechanism in acidic oxygen evolution reaction inhibits their further optimization. This study reveals that proton participation capability within Ru oxides is a critical factor contributing to their instability, which can induce catalyst pulverization and the collapse of the electrode structure. By restricting proton participation in the bulk phase and stabilizing the reaction interface, we demonstrate that the stability of Ru-oxide anodes can be notably improved, even under a high current density of 4 A cm^‒2 for over 100 h. This work provides some insights into designing Ru oxide-based catalysts and anodes for practical water electrolyzer applications.