@article{Zhang2025, 
author = {Jingjing Zhang and Fatimah Kehinde Busari and Yifei Zhang and Song Guo and Yang Zhao and Binli Wang and Qiong Zeng and Zhen Zhao and Gao Li},
title = {RuOx clusters anchored on self-assembled SnO2 cubic nanocage for boosting sustainable acidic water oxidation},
year = {2025},
journal = {Nano Research Energy},
volume = {4},
pages = {e9120140},
keywords = {oxygen evolution reaction, acidic water oxidation, SnO2 cubic nanocage, RuOx clusters},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/NRE.2024.9120140},
doi = {10.26599/NRE.2024.9120140},
abstract = {Electrochemical water splitting in acid has been emerging as a powerful, sustainable and green protocol to produce hydrogen gas sources. In this study, we propose a novel strategy to fabricate RuOx clusters anchored on self-assembled SnO2 cubic nanocages (RuOx-SnO2 composites), which is substantiated by a combination of spectroscopy and microscopy. The resulting RuOx-SnO2 composite catalysts exhibit boosting oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance: A Tafel slope of 41.2 mV·dec−1 and a low overpotential of 225 mV@10 mA·cm−2 in a 0.5 M H2SO4 (pH=0) electrolyte are achieved, outperforming the state-of-art OER catalyst of commercial RuO2 (com-RuO2). Notably, RuOx-SnO2 gives an extraordinarily large mass activity of 6873.4 A·gRu−1 at the overpotential of 270 mV, which is approximately 170 times higher than that of com-RuO2 (40.2 A·gRu−1). The RuOx-SnO2 exhibits a good durability for at least 100 h@50 mA·cm−2 and > 500 h@10 mA·cm−2 and a stability of 30 hours at 100 mA·cm−2 in an assembled proton exchange membrane water electrolysis, indicating that the engineered microstructure possesses significant potential for practical applications. The high intrinsic OER performance is attributed to the increasing density of exposed catalytic sites by downsizing RuOx clusters with abundant oxygen vacancies (Ov, 1.02×10−12 spin·mgcat.−1 determined by electron paramagnetic resonance). Furthermore, a Ru5c-Ov dual-active site mechanism is proposed by density functional theory calculations, that is, the moderate surface migration between five-coordinated surface Ru site (Ru5c) and Ov makes the *O→*OOH rate-determining step feasible. Moreover, this strategy provides a novel route for enhancing acidic OER activity and highly encouraging for their future applications of ruthenium-based composite catalysts.}
}