Laser-Generated Grain Boundaries in Ruthenium Nanoparticles for Boosting Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Highly active and stable catalysts are very crucial for boosting the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and converting water into clean fuel. Here, we adopt the laser ablation in liquid technique to produce Ru nanoparticles (NPs) enriched with grain boundaries (GBs). The as-prepared Ru NPs were then applied as an OER catalyst, achieving an overpotential as low as 202 mV @ 10 mA cm–2 in 0.5 M H2SO4. Moreover, the catalyst demonstrated stability for over 10 h, which is much better than commercial RuO2 (305 mV). EXAFS analysis and DFT calculations revealed that both the remarkably enhanced activity and stability originated from the compressive strain caused by the GBs accumulated in the laser-generated Ru NPs.