Edge-sharing RuO single layer for stable and low overpotential acidic water electrolysis
Wenxiang Zhu1,2,3,4, Jing Zhou5, Mengjie Ma2,6, Hengjie Liu7, Fan Liao2, Hui Huang2, Chang-Yang Kuo8,9,10, Yunxiang Lin11, Chih-Wen Pao9, Yu-Chung Chang9, Shu-Chih Haw9, Su-Yang Hsu8, Jin-Ming Chen8, Meng Ni3,4, Yang Liu(刘阳)2*, Mingwang Shao2, Zhiwei Hu(胡志伟)12*, Zhenhui Kang(康振辉)2,13*, Xiaoqing Huang(黄小青)6*, Qi Shao(邵琪)1*
1College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
2State Key Laboratory of Bioinspired Interfacial Materials Science, Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University, Suzhou, China
3Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering, Research Institute for Sustainable Urban, Development (RISUD) and Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, China
4Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, China
5Zhejiang Institute of Photoelectronics & Zhejiang Institute for Advanced Light Source, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, China
6State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
7National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
11Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei, China
12Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden, Germany
13Sino-Luso Joint Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Macao Institute of Materials Science and Engineering (MIMSE), MUST-SUDA Joint Research Center for Advanced Functional Materials, Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, China
Nat. Nanotechnol. 2026,
Abstract: The acidic oxygen-evolution reaction is intrinsically sluggish and requires large overpotentials, creating a key bottleneck for proton-exchange membrane water electrolysis technology. Here we show an edge-sharing single-layer oxide, 1T-phase ruthenium oxide (1T-RuO2). The edge-sharing configuration enables parallel alignment of ruthenium 4d orbitals across adjacent RuO6 octahedral clusters, facilitating intersite electron transport, in contrast to conventional rutile-type RuO2 with corner-/edge-sharing structures. 1T-RuO2 exhibits high acidic oxygen-evolution reaction activity with a low overpotential of 77 mV at 10 mA cm-2. It also delivers a mass activity of \(3,743.43\,{\rm{A}}\,{{\rm{g}}}_{\text{Ru}}^{-1}\) and a turnover frequency of 23.99 s−1 at 1.50 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode, exceeding those of rutile-RuO2 and showing highly competitive performance under the described experimental framework. In addition, 1T-RuO2 maintains a current density of ∼2.9 A cm-2 at a cell voltage of 1.70 V for over 1,100 h in a proton-exchange membrane water electrolyser.
Article information: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-026-02255-5