RuO2 electronic structure and lattice strain dual engineering for enhanced acidic oxygen evolution reaction performance

Yin Qin; Tingting Yu; Sihao Deng; Xiao-Ye Zhou; Dongmei Lin; Qian Zhang; Zeyu Jin; Danfeng Zhang; Yan-Bing He; Hua-Jun Qiu; Lunhua He; Feiyu Kang; Kaikai Li; Tong-Yi Zhang

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-31468-0

RuO₂ electronic structure and lattice strain dual engineering for enhanced acidic oxygen evolution reaction performance

Nat Commun. 2022 Jul 1;13(1):3784. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-31468-0.

Authors

Yin Qin^#¹, Tingting Yu^#¹, Sihao Deng², Xiao-Ye Zhou³, Dongmei Lin⁴, Qian Zhang⁵, Zeyu Jin¹, Danfeng Zhang⁶, Yan-Bing He⁶, Hua-Jun Qiu⁷, Lunhua He^{2

8

9}, Feiyu Kang⁶, Kaikai Li¹⁰, Tong-Yi Zhang¹¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), 518055, Shenzhen, China.
² Spallation Neutron Source Science Center, 523803, Dongguan, China.
³ School of Civil Engineering, Shenzhen University, 518060, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. xiaoye_zhou@szu.edu.cn.
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Research Institute for Smart Energy, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁵ Materials Genome Institute, Shanghai University, 333 Nanchen Road, 200444, Shanghai, China.
⁶ Shenzhen All-Solid-State Lithium Battery Electrolyte Engineering Research Center, Institute of Materials Research (IMR) Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University Shenzhen, 518055, Shenzhen, China.
⁷ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), 518055, Shenzhen, China. qiuhuajun@hit.edu.cn.
⁸ Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academic of Sciences, 100190, Beijing, China.
⁹ Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, 523808, Dongguan, China.
¹⁰ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), 518055, Shenzhen, China. likaikai@hit.edu.cn.
¹¹ The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Advanced Materials Thrust and Sustainable Energy and Environment Thrust, Nansha, Guangzhou, 511400, Guangdong, China. zhangty@shu.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Developing highly active and durable electrocatalysts for acidic oxygen evolution reaction remains a great challenge due to the sluggish kinetics of the four-electron transfer reaction and severe catalyst dissolution. Here we report an electrochemical lithium intercalation method to improve both the activity and stability of RuO₂ for acidic oxygen evolution reaction. The lithium intercalates into the lattice interstices of RuO₂, donates electrons and distorts the local structure. Therefore, the Ru valence state is lowered with formation of stable Li-O-Ru local structure, and the Ru-O covalency is weakened, which suppresses the dissolution of Ru, resulting in greatly enhanced durability. Meanwhile, the inherent lattice strain results in the surface structural distortion of Li_xRuO₂ and activates the dangling O atom near the Ru active site as a proton acceptor, which stabilizes the OOH* and dramatically enhances the activity. This work provides an effective strategy to develop highly efficient catalyst towards water splitting.