Atomically dispersed Ru–Co pairs on hollow carbon as robust catalysts for the acidic oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract

Developing durable, high-activity acidic oxygen evolution catalysts remains difficult. Here, we present atomically dispersed, spatially neighboring Ru–Co pairs anchored on hollow S,N-doped carbon via robust coordination. RuCo/SNC achieves a superior overpotential of 230 mV at 10 mA cm⁻² and remarkable stability compared to RuO₂. Operando spectroscopy detects concurrent *OOH and *O–O intermediates, revealing a mechanism where adsorbate evolution coexists with moderated lattice oxygen participation. This cooperative pathway significantly suppresses metal leaching. Consequently, engineering anchored, electronically coupled Ru–Co pairs provides an effective strategy to regulate reaction pathways and overcome activity–stability trade-off in acidic oxygen evolution.