Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Developing efficient electrocatalysts towards water oxidation is of critical importance for numerous environmental and energy technologies. Single-atom catalysts have been widely recognized as a promising route, they are however often anchored on semiconducting substrates such as hydroxides, which inherently limits the electrical conductivity and overall catalytic efficiency. In this work, single-atom Ru catalysts are immobilized on a semi-metallic layered double hydroxide substrate (Ru-SM LDH) to achieve highly efficient water oxidation. The as-designed Ru-SM LDH catalyst displayed an overpotential of 270 mV to deliver an oxygen evolution reaction (OER) current density of 100 mA cm−2, which was 60 mV lower than that of commercial RuO2. In-situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy revealed that Ru-SM LDH exhibited a reduced solution resistance and diminished charge transfer resistance during catalysis, leading to enhanced OER performance. An electrolyzer assembled with Ru-SM LDH anode and commercial Ni mesh cathode achieved a water electrolysis current density of 400 mA cm−2 at 1.65 V and demonstrated exceptional stability for 1000 h, surpassing that of Ni||Ni electrolyzer (1.92 V, 350 h). These findings establish the design of single-atom catalysts supported on semi-metallic hydroxide substrates as a robust pathway toward efficient water electrolysis catalysts.
Language: English
Field: Energy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Awards: G1607384722, G435959396, G7288986752
OpenAlex ID: W7160870658