RuCoO Nanofoam as a High-Performance Trifunctional Electrocatalyst for Rechargeable Zinc-Air Batteries and Water Splitting

Designing high-performance trifunctional electrocatalysts for ORR/OER/HER with outstanding activity and stability for each reaction is quite significant yet challenging for renewable energy technologies. Herein, a highly efficient and durable trifunctional electrocatalyst RuCoO is prepared by a unique one-pot glucose-blowing approach. Remarkably, RuCoO catalyst exhibits a small potential difference (ΔE) of 0.65 V and low HER overpotential of 37 mV (10 mA cm^-2), as well as a negligible decay of overpotential after 200 000/10 000/10 000 CV cycles for ORR/OER/HER, all of which show overwhelming superiorities among the advanced trifunctional electrocatalysts. When used in liquid rechargeable Zn-air batteries and water splitting electrolyzer, RuCoO exhibits high efficiency and outstanding durability even at quite large current density. Such excellent performance can be attributed to the rational combination of targeted ORR/OER/HER active sites into one electrocatalyst based on the double-phase coupling strategy, which induces sufficient electronic structure modulation and synergistic effect for enhanced trifunctional properties.