Unlocking lattice oxygen mediation in a multi-functional electrocatalyst for concurrent energy-efficient electrooxidation and hydrogen evolution

The lattice oxygen-mediated mechanism (LOM) offers a promising pathway to break the scaling relations limit of the conventional adsorbate evolution mechanism (AEM), presenting a general strategy for enhancing the kinetics of not only the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) but also a wide range of other electrooxidation reactions. This is because the LOM can activate electrophilic oxygen species, which are capable of efficiently attacking chemical bonds. However, the electronic structure tailored for activating lattice oxygen often renders the catalyst surface incompatible with the adsorption/desorption of hydrogen intermediates, posing a fundamental dilemma for developing versatile electrocatalysts. This study constructs an all-in-one electrocatalyst using an in-situ corrosion (CoRu-Cu₂O/CF). The dopant of Ru activates lattice oxygen, leading to the transformations of the OER mechanism from AEM to LOM, which is boosting OER. Simultaneously, the LOM-based catalyst demonstrates notable advantages in other electrooxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, urea, methanol, hydrazine, and ammonia. And the introduction of Ru can enhance the adsorption capability of H intermediates, benefiting the HER. This work presents a strategy that successfully achieves compatibility between the LOM mechanism and H adsorption/desorption equilibrium, offering a scalable approach in the water electrolysis, direct methanol fuel cells, direct ammonia fuel cells, and the electrosynthesis or degradation of organic compounds.