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Updated: Jun 10, 2025

Synthesis and Performance Characterizations of Transition Metal Single Atom Catalyst for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction
Published on: April 10, 2018
Regulating Co-O covalency to manipulate mechanistic transformation for enhancing activity/durability in acidic water
Jiachen Zhang1, Guangbo Chen2,3, Dongmei Sun1
1Jiangsu Key Laboratory of New Power Batteries, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Biomedical Functional Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Nanjing Normal University 210023 Nanjing China hanjun.sun@njnu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Developing earth-abundant electrocatalysts with high activity and durability for acidic oxygen evolution reaction is essential for H2 production, yet it remains greatly challenging. Here, guided by theoretical calculations, the challenge of overcoming the balance between catalytic activity and dynamic durability for acidic OER in Co3O4 was effectively addressed via the preferential substitution of Ru for the Co2+ (Td) site of Co3O4. In situ characterization and DFT calculations show that the enhanced Co-O covalency after the introduction of Ru SAs facilitates the generation of OH* species and mitigates the unstable structure transformation via direct O-O coupling. The designed Ru SAs-CoO x catalyst (5.16 wt% Ru) exhibits enhanced OER activity (188 mV overpotential at 10 mA cm-2) and durability, outperforming most reported Co3O4-based and Ru-based electrocatalysts in acidic media.
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