Engineering interfacial water networks via oxygenophilic Ru sites on NiCo alloy for efficient anion exchange membrane water electrolysis

: Regulating interfacial water structure and disrupting its original hydrogen bond network is crucial for achieving efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) under industrial current densities. Herein, we report a catalyst fabricated by anchoring oxygenophilic Ru nanoparticles onto a magnetron-sputtered NiCo alloy (Ru/NiCo, Ru loading of only 2.35 wt%). This paper reveals that the combined effect of Ru and NiCo enhances OH* adsorption and promotes the transformation from tetrahedral coordinated hydrogen bond water to mobile Free-H 2 O, accelerates the dynamic rearrangement of interface water, reduces intramolecular hydrogen bonds. The Ru/NiCo requires 15 mV and 234 mV to reach –10 and –1000 mA cm −2 , respectively. In a practical anion exchange membrane water electrolyzer (AEMWE), the NiFeO x ||Ru/NiCo can operate stably at 1 A cm −2 for 1000 h (degradation rate of 9.96 μV h −1 ). This work provides fundamental insight into designing efficient catalysts for industrial hydrogen production by engineering the interfacial aqueous environment through the interaction of oxygenophilic site with the alloy.