Regulating Co-O covalency to manipulate mechanistic transformation for enhancing activity/durability in acidic water oxidation.

Developing earth-abundant electrocatalysts with high activity and durability for acidic oxygen evolution reaction is essential for H 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 CoO was effectively addressed the preferential substitution of Ru for the Co (T) site of CoO. 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 direct O-O coupling. The designed Ru SAs-CoO catalyst (5.16 wt% Ru) exhibits enhanced OER activity (188 mV overpotential at 10 mA cm) and durability, outperforming most reported CoO-based and Ru-based electrocatalysts in acidic media.