MOF‐Derived Zinc‐Doped Ruthenium Oxide Hollow Nanorods as Highly Active and Stable Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Evolution in Acidic Media

Abstract It is highly desirable but challenging to develop active and stable electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in acid media. Heteroatom incorporation is an effective strategy of defect engineering for optimizing the intrinsic electrocatalytic activities. In this research, zinc‐doped ruthenium oxide (Zn‐doped RuO₂) nanorods were prepared by using the facile two‐step method. It is found that the OER activity of Zn‐doped RuO₂ catalysts can be readily controlled by varying the amount of Zn dopants. The Zn‐doped RuO₂ catalyst with 6.4 at.% displays the best electrocatalytic activity with a low overpotential of 206 mV at 10 mA cm⁻², a Tafel slope of 49 mV dec⁻¹ and a long‐term chronopotentiometry test at 10 mA cm⁻² for 30 h towards OER in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ solution. The enhanced OER performance may be attributed to the defective structures caused by Zn doping and the ultrasmall size of the RuO₂ nanocrystals.