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Affordable, active, and durable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts are crucial for proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE). The low-cost RuO2, relative to IrO2, is attractive for acidic OER while suffering from durability. To resolve this activity-stability dilemma of RuO2, we propose a universal nonmetal-metal strategy to reduce Ru-O covalency while promoting local reactive water concentration for efficient acidic OER. The nonmetal-metal dual-dopant via complementary regulation of O 2p and Ru 4d bands weakens the Ru-O covalency, constraining the lattice oxygen participation and Ru dissolution. Operando evidence further unravels that the best-performing B-Cr-RuO2, via surface OH, increases the local reactive water concentration and the connectivity of H-bond networks, enabling an order of magnitude enhancement in intrinsic activity without sacrificing durability over RuO2. Consequently, the B-Cr-RuO2-incorporated PEMWE delivers attractive performance for practical applications, requiring a voltage of only 1.54 V@1.0 A cm-2 and maintaining a durable operation at industrial current densities.
Wang et al. (Sat,) studied this question.