Improving the OER activity of noble metal-based materials is of profound importance to minimize the usage of noble metals and lower the cost. Here, we report considerable improvement on the catalytic activity of RuO₂ particles for OER in both alkali and acid environments. The RuO₂ nanoparticles were treated with a method of pulse laser ablation. Numerous Ru and RuO₂ clusters were generated at the surface of RuO₂ nanoparticles after the laser ablation, forming a lychee-shaped morphology. The larger pulse energy RuO₂ nanoparticles are treated with, the better the OER activity can be. DFT calculations shows that the surface tension induced by the lychee-shaped morphology benefits the OER performance. Our best sample gives an overpotential of 172 mV (at 10 mA cm⁻²) and a Tafel slope of 53.5 mV dec⁻¹ in KOH, while an overpotential of 219 mV and a Tafel slope of 44.9 mV dec⁻¹ in H₂SO₄, which are of top-class results. This work may inspire a new way to develop high-performance electrocatalysts for OER.

提高贵金属基材料的OER活性对于最大限度地减少贵金属的使用并降低成本具有极为重要的意义。在这里，我们报告了在碱性和酸性环境下，RuO ₂颗粒对OER的催化活性都有了很大的提高。用脉冲激光烧蚀方法处理RuO ₂纳米颗粒。激光烧蚀后，在RuO ₂纳米颗粒的表面上生成大量Ru和RuO ₂簇，形成荔枝形形态。较大的脉冲能量RuO ₂用纳米颗粒处理，OER活性可以越好。DFT计算表明，由荔枝形形态引起的表面张力有利于OER性能。我们最好的样品在KOH中的过电势为172 mV（在10 mA cm ^-2时）和Tafel斜率在KOH中为53.5 mV dec ^-1，而在H ₂ SO中的电势为219 mV和Tafel斜率为44.9 mV dec ^-1 ₄，这是一流的结果。这项工作可能会激发出一种开发OER高性能电催化剂的新方法。