Porous Tellurium-Doped Ruthenium Dioxide Nanotubes for Enhanced Acidic Water Oxidation.

Electrocatalysts with high activity and durability for acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) play a crucial role in achieving cost-effective hydrogen production via proton exchange membrane water electrolysis. A novel electrocatalyst, Te-doped RuO 2 (Te-RuO 2 ) nanotubes, synthesized using a template-directed process, which significantly enhances the OER performance in acidic media is reported. The Te-RuO 2 nanotubes exhibit remarkable OER activity in acidic media, requiring an overpotential of only 171 mV to achieve an anodic current density of 10 mA cm -2 . Furthermore, they maintain stable chronopotentiometric performance under 10 mA cm -2 in acidic media for up to 50 h. Based on the experimental results and density functional calculations, this significant improvement in OER performance to the synergistic effect of large specific surface area and modulated electronic structure resulting from the doping of Te cations is attributed.