Dynamic shrinkage of metal-oxygen bonds in atomic Co-doped nanoporous RuO2 for acidic oxygen evolution

The design of highly active and stable catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in acidic media has become an attractive research area development energy conversion storage technologies. However, progress this been limited by poor understanding dynamic structure under realistic OER conditions. Here, atomic Co-doped nanoporous RuO2 electrocatalyst, which exhibited excellent activity stability conditions, was synthesized through annealing etching a Co-Ru alloy. Operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy results confirmed that strategy produced abundant vacancies around metal centers electrocatalyst. These created contracted metal-oxygen ligand bonds structural electrocatalyst allowed them to experience lower kinetic barriers during catalysis, resulting enhanced catalytic stability. This study also provided details on influence their activity.