Abstract
To date, only a few noble metal oxides exhibit the required efficiency and stability as oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts under the acidic, high-voltage conditions that exist during proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE). The high cost and scarcity of these catalysts hinder the large-scale application of PEMWE. Here, we report a novel OER electrocatalyst for OER comprised of uniformly dispersed Ru clusters confined on boron carbon nitride (BCN) support. Compared to RuO2 , our BCN-supported catalyst shows enhanced charge transfer. It displays a low overpotential of 164 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm-2 , suggesting its excellent OER catalytic activity. This catalyst was able to operate continuously for over 12 h under acidic conditions, whereas RuO2 without any support fails in 1 h. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations confirm that the interaction between the N on BCN support and Ru clusters changes the adsorption capacity and reduces the OER energy barrier, which increases the electrocatalytic activity of Ru.
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