Single-atom Ru anchoring on MoS2 nanosheets induces interfacial electronic reconstruction for enhanced OER and HER catalytic performance in alkaline media

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) hindered by its intrinsic sluggish kinetics remains a critical bottleneck in advancing water electrolysis and metal-air battery technologies. To address this challenge, herein, a Ru single-atom-anchored MoS 2 nanosheet array on carbon cloth (Ru–MoS 2 /CC) is rationally designed to regulate the local electronic structure at the atomic scale. The isolated Ru atoms induce substantial electronic reconstruction of the MoS 2 matrix, manifested by charge redistribution, work-function reduction, enhanced electronic states near the Fermi level, orbital hybridization, and optimized d -band configuration. Such synergistic electronic modulation effectively tailors the adsorption energetics of key HER/OER intermediates (H* and OOH*), leading to markedly improved bifunctional electrocatalytic activity. Consequently, the optimized Ru-MoS 2 /CC delivers low overpotentials of 230 mV at 50 mA‧ cm −2 for OER and 103 mV at 10 mA‧ cm −2 for HER in 1 M KOH. This work highlights atomic-scale electronic engineering as an effective strategy for developing high-performance MoS 2 -based bifunctional electrocatalysts and provides fundamental insights into structure–activity relationships for sustainable water electrolysis.