Boosting Oxygen-Evolving Activity via Atom-Stepped Interfaces Architected with Kinetic Frustration

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Electrochemistry
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• High catalytic activity is crucial for electrocatalysts, but tailoring interface atomic structures is difficult.
• Developing efficient and cost-effective electrocatalysts is essential for energy technologies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a facile strategy for creating high-energy atomic steps at electrocatalyst interfaces.
• To engineer the atomic packing characteristics of interfaces for enhanced catalytic efficiency.

Main Methods:

• Controlling the solidification behavior of glass-forming metallic liquids.
• Adjusting chemical composition and cooling rates to form FeNi3 nanocrystals within a metallic glass matrix.
• Creating order/disorder interfaces with abundant atomic steps.

Main Results:

• Fabrication of a FeNi3 nanocrystal/metallic glass composite with highly stepped interfaces.
• Achieved low oxygen-evolving overpotential (214 mV at 10 mA cm-2) and small Tafel slope (32.4 mV dec-1).
• Demonstrated good stability in alkaline media, outperforming state-of-the-art catalysts.

Conclusions:

• The physical metallurgy approach effectively engineers atomic-level stepped interfaces in metallic glass composites.
• This method provides a new paradigm for designing efficient and cost-effective electrocatalysts.
• The strategy is extendable to other metallic glass systems for broader applications in catalysis.