The development of low-cost, efficient, and stable electrodes for electrochemical water splitting remains a serious challenge. Herein, a specific alkaline treatment is used to grow a porous network structure over the surface of the titanium substrates. Afterward, Ru3+ ions are incorporated into the constructed porous network using the SILAR method and an ion exchange process. Loaded Ru3+ ions are subsequently converted into RuO2 using a thermal treatment. During this treatment, there is simultaneous formation of TiO2 and RuO2 which combine to form a TiO2@RuO2 mixed metal oxide nanostructure over the surface of titanium substrates. Resulting self-supporting electrodes (Ti/TiO2@RuO2-x) were characterized using advanced characterization techniques such as XRD, XPS, SEM, EDX, FE-SEM and HR-TEM, and used as counter and working electrodes for OER in an alkaline medium. Electrochemical studies reveal that with low Ru contents of 0.79 ± 0.02 and 2.27 ± 0.09 (at. %) for counter and working respectively, the electron transfer properties, OH– adsorption capacity, and hence, OER activity of the proposed working electrode are significantly enhanced. Moreover, the long-term stability and postcharacterization studies demonstrate the high potential of TiO2 to strongly bind RuO2 at the substrate surface and prevent their dissolution during electrochemical reactions.
Tchekep et al. (2026) studied this question.