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Tailoring lattice strain in ultra-fine high-entropy alloys for active and stable methanol oxidation

调控超细高熵合金晶格应变用于高活性和高稳定 性甲醇氧化

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Abstract

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) have been widely studied due to their unconventional compositions and unique physicochemical properties for various applications. Herein, for the first time, we propose a surface strain strategy to tune the electrocatalytic activity of HEAs for methanol oxidation reaction (MOR). High-resolution aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and elemental mapping demonstrate both uniform atomic dispersion and the formation of a face-centered cubic (FCC) crystalline structure in PtFeCoNiCu HEAs. The HEAs obtained by heat treatment at 700°C (HEA-700) exhibit 0.94% compressive strain compared with that obtained at 400°C (HEA-400). As expected, the specific activity and mass activity of HEA-700 is higher than that of HEA-400 and most of the state-of-the-art catalysts. The enhanced MOR activity can be attributed to a shorter Pt-Pt bond distance in HEA-700 resulting from compressive strain. The nonprecious metal atoms in the core could generate compressive strain and down shift d-band centers via electron transfer to surface Pt layer. This work presents a new perspective for the design of high-performance HEAs electrocatalysts.

摘要

高熵合金(HEAs)因其非常规的组成和独特的物理化学性质 而得到广泛研究. 本文, 我们首次提出了一种表面应变策略来调控 HEAs的电子结构用于高效的甲醇电氧化反应(MOR). 高分辨像差 校正扫描透射电子显微镜(STEM)和元素分布分析表明, 在PtFeCo-NiCu HEAs中各原子分散均匀, 并形成FCC晶体结构. 700°C热处理 所得HEA-700的压缩应变比400°C热处理所得HEA-400的压缩应变 高0.94%. 正如预期, HEA-700的比活性和质量活性远超HEA-400和 目前大多数最先进的催化剂. MOR活性的增强归因于压缩应变导 致HEA-700中Pt–Pt键距缩短. 同时, 核中的非贵金属原子通过转移 电子到表面Pt层产生压缩应变和d带中心的下移. 这项工作为高性 能HEAs电催化剂的设计提供了一个新的视角.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51402100, 21573066, 21825201, 22002039, and 21522305), the Scientific Research Foundation of Hunan Provincial Education Department (19C0054), the Postgraduate Scientific Research Innovation Project of Hunan Province (CX20200441), the Australian Research Council (CE 140100012)∣ the Australian National Fabrication Facility ∣ UOW Electron Microscopy Centre, and Compute Canada, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), University of Toronto.

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Wang S, Singh CV, Tao L, Zhang Y, Chen J and Dong CL conceived the idea and directed the research Wang D, Chen Z, Huang YC and Li W designed the experiments. Wang D, Li W, Wang J, Gu K, Huang X, Chen J and Wang T synthesized the materials and carried out the XRD, XPS, TEM and STEM physical characterizations. Huang Y and Dong CL did the XANES and EXAFS experiments. Wang D, Zhang Y, Wu Y and Chen C completed the electrochemical tests. Chen Z, Lu Z and Singh CV provided the DFT calculation for this work Wang D, Chen Z, Huang YC and Li W wrote the paper with comments from all authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yiqiong Zhang  (张怡琼), Li Tao  (陶李), Chung-Li Dong  (董崇禮), Jun Chen  (陈俊), Chandra Veer Singh or Shuangyin Wang  (王双印).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest

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Dongdong Wang received his Bachelor degree in 2018 from Hunan University of Science and Technology, China. He is currently pursuing his PhD degree under the supervision of Prof. Shuangyin Wang at Hunan University. His research interest includes the synthesis, characterization of nanomaterials for electrocatalysis and electrochemical coupling.

Zhiwen Chen works as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) at the University of Toronto, Canada. He received his PhD degree from Jilin University, China. His current research focuses on the catalyst design for hydrogen evolution reaction, CO2 reduction reaction, nitrogen reduction reaction, etc. through density functional theory calculations. Some of his studies are carried out in close collaboration with experiments.

Yu-Cheng Huang received his BSc degree from Tamkang University in 2015, and obtained his MSc degree in the Department of Electrophysics from Chiao Tung University in 2017. He started studying for PhD in the Department of Electrophysics, Chiao Tung University in 2017. His research focuses on fundamental XAS analysis, including XANES, EXAFS and soft X-ray in-situ measurement techniques.

Wei Li received his BSc degree in 2013 from Huazhong Agricultural University and his PhD degree in 2018 from Chongqing University under the supervision of Prof. Zidong Wei. He currently works at Hunan University as a postdoctoral researcher under the co-supervision of Prof. Shuangyin Wang. His main research focuses on the development of defective nanomaterials in fuel cell application.

Yiqiong Zhang received her Master degree in 2015 from South China Normal University and her PhD degree in 2019 from Hunan University under the supervision of Prof. Shuangyin Wang. She is currently working at the College of Materials Science and Engineering, Changsha University of Science & Technology. Her current research interests include the synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials with various defects for electrochemical energy conversion and storage technologies.

Li Tao received his Master degree in 2016 and his PhD degree in 2019 from Hunan University under the supervision of Prof. Shuangyin Wang. He is currently an assistant professor of the key Laboratory for Graphene Materials and Devices and College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University. His research interests are in plasma technology, defect chemistry and fuel cell.

Chung-Li Dong received his PhD degree in physics from Tamkang University in 2004. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Advanced Light Source Facility (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) with Prof. Jinghua Guo. Now he joined the Department of Physics at Tamkang University as Associate Professor. His current research interests include the development of electrochromic, gaschromic and thermochromic related soft/hard X-ray in-situ reactors, lithium battery systems, supercapacitor systems, and electrocatalytic hydrogen production catalysts.

Jun Chen received his PhD degree at the School of Chemistry, University of Wollongong, Australia, in 2003. Professor Chen is a Chief Investigator of The ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES). His research interests include sustainable energy devices/systems, electro-/bio- interfaces, nano/micro-materials, 2D/3D printing, and design and fabrication of smart electronic devices.

Chandra Veer Singh is the Erwin Edward Hart Endowed Associate Professor and Associate Chair of Research in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto, Canada. Dr Singh received his PhD degree in aerospace engineering from Texas A&M University. Subsequently, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University. His research is currently focused on the atomistic modeling and machine learning enabled development of new materials for catalysts and metal-ion batteries.

Shuangyin Wang received his BSc degree in 2006 from Zhejiang University and his PhD degree in 2010 from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is currently a professor of the Key Laboratory for Graphene Materials and Devices and College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University. His research interests are in plasma technology, defects in various crystals and their application for electrochemical energy storage and conversion.

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Wang, D., Chen, Z., Huang, YC. et al. Tailoring lattice strain in ultra-fine high-entropy alloys for active and stable methanol oxidation. Sci. China Mater. 64, 2454–2466 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-020-1635-9

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