Tantalum-stabilized Ruthenium Oxide Electrocatalysts for Industrial Water Electrolysis

Science (New York, N.Y.)  ·  2025  ·  Impact 6

Jiahao Zhang; Xianbiao Fu; Soonho Kwon; Kaifeng Chen; Xiaozhi Liu; Jin Yang; Haoran Sun; Yanchang Wang; Tomoki Uchiyama; Yoshiharu Uchimoto; Shaofeng Li; Yan Li; Xiaolong Fan; Gong Chen; Fanjie Xia; Jinsong Wu; Yanbo Li; Qin Yue; Liang Qiao; Dong Su; Hua Zhou; William A Goddard; Yijin Kang;

HIGHLIGHT

We used well-defined extended surface models to identify that RuO undergoes structure-dependent corrosion that causes Ru dissolution.

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ABSTRACT

The iridium oxide (IrO ) catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction used industrially (in proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers) is scarce and costly. Although ruthenium oxide (RuO ) is a promising alternative, its poor stability has hindered practical application. We used well-defined extended surface models to identify that RuO undergoes structure-dependent corrosion that causes Ru dissolution. Tantalum (Ta) doping effectively stabilized RuO against such corrosion and enhanced the intrinsic activity of RuO . In an industrial demonstration, Ta-RuO electrocatalyst exhibited stability near that of IrO and had a performance decay rate of ~14 microvolts per hour in a 2800-hour test. At current densities of 1 ampere per square centimeter, it had an overpotential 330 millivolts less than that of IrO .

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