Accelerating Electron Transfer via Ternary Heterostructures for Enhanced Acidic Oxygen Evolution Performance

Abstract

Developing ruthenium-based catalysts with high activity and long-term stability is crucial for sustaining efficient oxygen evolution reactions (OER) under acidic conditions. Here, we develop a ruthenium-titanium-tin oxide (RuO₂/TiSnO_x) electrocatalyst featuring a rationally engineered ternary heterostructure composed of RuO₂, TiO₂, and SnO₂ phases with well-defined interfaces. Such a unique architecture establishes a multidirectional electron transport network, which accelerates electron delivery to Ru active sites and mitigates local charge accumulation, thereby suppressing overoxidation and dissolution of Ru under acidic conditions. Structural and spectroscopic characterizations confirm the formation of coherent heterointerfaces, which reconstruct the coordination environment of Ru, thereby favoring optimal adsorption of OER intermediates. Benefiting from synergistic effects, the RuO₂/TiSnO_x catalyst achieves a remarkably low overpotential of 187 mV at 10 mA/cm² in 0.5 mol/L H₂SO₄ and maintains stable operation for 500 h, outperforming most previous Ru-based catalysts. This study demonstrates that ternary heterostructure engineering provides an effective pathway to balance activity and stability in Ru-based acidic OER catalysts, advancing the practical application in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) systems for green hydrogen production.

Keywords

Oxygen evolution reaction / Ternary heterostructure / Electronic environment modulation / Ru-based catalyst

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RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Jilin University, The Editorial Department of Chemical Research in Chinese Universities and Springer-Verlag GmbH