Affiliation:
1. Beijing Key Laboratory of Microstructure and Properties of Solids Faculty of Materials and Manufacturing Beijing University of Technology Beijing 100124 China
2. Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility Institute of High Energy Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100049 China
3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100049 China
Abstract
AbstractOxygen evolution reaction (OER) plays a critical role in energy conversion technologies. Significant progress has been made in alkaline conditions. In contrast, it remains a challenge to develop stable OER electrocatalysts in acidic conditions. Herein, a new strategy is reported to stabilize single atoms integrated into cobalt oxide spinel structure with interstitial carbon (Ru0.27Co2.73O4), where the optimized Ru0.27Co2.73O4 exhibits a low overpotential of 265, 326, and 367 mV to reach a current density of 10, 50, and 100 mA cm2, respectively. More importantly, Ru0.27Co2.73O4 has long‐term stability of up to 100 h, representing one of the most stable OER electrocatalysts. X‐ray adsorption spectroscopy (XAS) characterization and density functional theory (DFT) calculations jointly demonstrate that the significant catalytic performance of Ru0.27Co2.73O4 is due to the synergistic effect between the Ru and Co sites and the bridging O ligands, as well as the significant reduction of the OER energy barrier. This work provides a new perspective for designing and constructing efficient non‐noble metal‐based electrocatalysts for water splitting.