Fe-Doped Nickel Carbonate Hydroxide-Supported Ru Nanocluster Catalyst as Efficient OER Electrocatalysts

The development of high-efficiency and stable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts is crucial for sustainable hydrogen production via water splitting. Single-atom catalysts (SACs) represent a promising direction, yet their performance heavily relies on the support material. Herein, we report a highly active OER catalyst comprising ruthenium (Ru) species supported on Fe-doped nickel carbonate hydroxide (NFCH) grown on nickel foam (NF). The NFCH support, synthesized via a hydrothermal method, possesses a high specific surface area and excellent electrical conductivity. The incorporation of carbonate anions (CO₃^2-) enhances structural stability and interfacial hydrophilicity. Ru was subsequently decorated onto NFCH via electrodeposition to form the NFCH-Ru_x series (where x denotes the mmol amount of Ru precursor). The optimized NFCH-Ru₃ catalyst exhibits outstanding OER performance in 1 M KOH, requiring a low overpotential of only 220 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm^-2, with a small Tafel slope of 40.92 mV dec^-1. Furthermore, it demonstrates remarkable durability with negligible activity loss (2.9%) after 12 h of continuous operation, outperforming many recently reported non-precious metal-based catalysts. This work highlights the potential of metal carbonate hydroxides as superior supports for developing high-performance OER electrocatalysts.