Stable and efficient chlorine evolution reaction with atomically dispersed Ru on surface tensile strained TiO2

Developing highly efficient and selective electrocatalysts for the chlorine evolution reaction (CER) in the chloralkali industry is of great importance. Here, we report the discovery of a new electrocatalyst for CER consisting of atomically dispersed Ru sites on surface tensile strained TiO (Ru-S-TiO). The single-atom Ru species were stabilized on the strained TiO surface by strong metal-support interactions. The Ru-S-TiO is highly efficient, initiating CER at only 5 mV above the E, and has shown excellent stability for over 100 hours. It exhibited >95 % CER selectivity even in acidic media with low Cl concentrations (0.2 M). Our results demonstrate that the strong metal-support interactions between the atomically dispersed Ru species and the strained TiO surface are crucial for the high catalytic activity, selectivity, and stability of Ru-S-TiO for CER. Ru-S-TiO holds great promise as a viable alternative to existing mixed metal oxides-based electrocatalysts for CER in the chloralkali industry.