# Ti Dopants as a Morphology-Stabilizing Agent in Mesoporous Ruthenium Oxide Electrodes

## TL;DR

Titanium doping helps create stable, porous ruthenium oxide films that are efficient and durable for electrochemical applications.

## Contribution

Titanium doping is shown to stabilize mesoporous structures in ruthenium oxide during high-temperature calcination.

## Key findings

- Ti-doped RuOx films retain mesoporous structure after high-temperature calcination.
- RuTiOx electrodes show high catalytic activity for chlorine evolution reaction.
- Ti enhances both structural stability and electronic properties of RuOx.

## Abstract

Due to its excellent electrochemical properties, ruthenium
oxide
is used in applications ranging from electrocatalysis to sensors and
energy storage. However, the scarcity and cost of ruthenium demand
strategies for maximizing its efficient use. Primary tools in this
are nanostructuring, which enhances the accessible surface area, and
crystallization, which improves stability against dissolution. However,
these two strategies are typically in conflict: crystallization via
high-temperature calcination often leads to pore collapse in nanostructured
RuO
x
. To deal with this trade-off between
porosity and stability, here, we demonstrate that titanium doping
stabilizes the mesoporous structure of RuO
x
during high-temperature calcination, enabling the synthesis of highly
crystalline yet mesoporous RuTiO
x
films.
Unlike earlier Ti-doped RuO
x
systems,
which often suffer from a loss of porosity or structural cracking
at elevated temperatures, our soft-templated RuTiOx films retain a
well-defined mesostructure and exhibit strong electronic interaction
between Ti–O and Ru–O bonds. Electrochemical testing
shows that the RuTiO
x
electrodes exhibit
high catalytic activity for the chlorine evolution reaction (CER),
achieving current densities above 500 mA cm–2 at
1.50 VAg/AgCl in 3 M HCl, with improved operational stability
compared to pure RuO
x
. This work highlights
a dual role of Ti: stabilizing film morphology and tuning the electronic
structure, offering a general strategy to combine high surface area
with long-term durability in mesostructured electrocatalysts.