Ultrafast Fabrication of Defect‐Rich Medium‐Entropy RuVCoCuZnW Alloy Nanoparticles for Industrial‐Current‐Density Anion Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis

Abstract Alloys with multiple elements have emerged as advanced hydrogen/oxygen evolution reactions (HER/OER) electrocatalysts for anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) due to their excellent corrosion resistance, thermal stability, multiple active sites, and great inherent synergistic effect. However, the facile and rapid preparation of such alloys with high electrocatalytic activity remains challenging. Herein, a flash Joule‐heating strategy is conducted for ultrafast synthesis of RuVCoCuZnW medium‐entropy alloy with multiple elements (MEA) anchored on carbon nanotubes. The selective Zn volatilization during thermal shock generates abundant vacancies and mesoporous structures, creating a high‐density active surface. The optimized RuVCoCuZnW MEA exhibits exceptional bifunctional activity, requiring ultralow overpotentials of 231 mV (HER) and 435 mV (OER) to achieve ±500 mA cm − 2 in alkaline media, surpassing commercial Pt/C and RuO 2 benchmarks. Furthermore, it demonstrates good stability in 1500 h long testing, with performance degradation exceeding the 2025 requirements of the US Department of Energy (≤40 µV h −1 ). Through systematic characterization and density functional theory calculations, it is revealed that the Ru species and Zn vacancy sites synergistically optimize hydrogen and oxygen adsorption energy and accelerate reaction kinetics. This work provides a new approach for synthesizing nanoscale MEA electrocatalysts for clean energy conversion applications on a large‐scale basis for practical commercialization.