Isolated Octahedral Pt-Induced Electron Transfer to Ultralow-Content Ruthenium-Doped Spinel Co3O4 for Enhanced Acidic Overall Water Splitting

The development of a highly active and stable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalyst is desirable for sustainable and efficient hydrogen production via proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) powered by renewable electricity yet challenging. Herein, we report a robust Pt/Ru-codoped spinel cobalt oxide (PtRu–Co₃O₄) electrocatalyst with an ultralow precious metal loading for acidic overall water splitting. PtRu–Co₃O₄ exhibits excellent catalytic activity (1.63 V at 100 mA cm^–2) and outstanding stability without significant performance degradation for 100 h operation. Experimental analysis and theoretical calculations indicate that Pt doping can induce electron transfer to Ru-doped Co₃O₄, optimize the absorption energy of oxygen intermediates, and stabilize metal–oxygen bonds, thus enhancing the catalytic performance through an adsorbate-evolving mechanism. As a consequence, the PEM electrolyzer featuring PtRu–Co₃O₄ catalyst with low precious metal mass loading of 0.23 mg cm^–2 can drive a current density of 1.0 A cm^–2 at 1.83 V, revealing great promise for the application of noniridium-based catalysts with low contents of precious metal for hydrogen production.