Atomically dispersed Ru in ZIF-67 as a high-performance HER catalyst: in situ structural evolution and deactivation mechanism elucidation

, while Ru atoms aggregate into nanoparticles, causing phase segregation. This transformation excessively strengthens hydrogen adsorption, ultimately degrading performance. Our work establishes single-atom engineering as an effective approach to unlock the latent activity of pristine MOFs while revealing their reconstruction behavior under cathodic conditions.