Professor Hyoyoung Lee’s research team (first authors: Yang Liu and Weixuan Wang) has developed a novel ruthenium-based catalyst by introducing tensile strain and doping with tantalum and strontium. This catalyst exhibits superior oxygen evolution performance compared not only to commercial catalysts but also to the most recent state-of-the-art systems. Most notably, it achieves both high efficiency and outstanding stability, demonstrating its potential to replace iridium.

            Green hydrogen production relies on the electrolysis of water, where hydrogen is produced through a relatively simple two-electron reduction reaction, while oxygen generation involves a more sluggish four-electron oxidation process. The latter is hampered by low reactivity and limited electrode stability, making the use of iridium catalysts indispensable until now. However, iridium suffers from scarcity, high cost, and limited supply, creating an urgent demand for alternative catalysts.

           The team turned its attention to ruthenium as a promising substitute. While ruthenium is more abundant and less expensive than iridium, conventional ruthenium oxide catalysts suffer from poor stability because lattice oxygen participates in the oxygen evolution reaction. To overcome this limitation, the researchers tuned the energy levels of ruthenium and oxygen orbitals to prevent lattice oxygen involvement, thereby creating a new reaction pathway. They further enhanced performance by applying tensile strain to adjust the electronic structure and by doping with tantalum and strontium to maximize catalytic efficiency.

           This breakthrough effectively addresses the major bottleneck of oxygen evolution in water electrolysis, significantly improving the commercialization potential of low-cost ruthenium catalysts. The team anticipates that this achievement will enhance the economic feasibility of water-splitting technologies and contribute meaningfully to the realization of a sustainable carbon-neutral society.

           Supported by the Mid-Career Researcher Program (NRF−2022R1A2C2093415) of the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea, this research has been recognized for its excellence and published in Nature Communications (Impact Factor: 15.7), a leading international journal ranked 10th in Multidisciplinary Sciences worldwide.

※ Paper Title: Effectiveness of strain and dopants on breaking the activity-stability trade-off of RuO2 acidic oxygen evolution electrocatalysts

※ Journal: Nature Communications

※ DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56638-8

Image of improved stability through structural modification of ruthenium catalysts and metal doping