Boosting the Selectivity in Oxygen Electrocatalysis Using Chiral Nanoparticles as Electron-Spin Filters

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Electrochemistry
• Spintronics

Background:

• Controlling electron spin is vital for efficient oxygen electrocatalysis in clean energy technologies.
• Current methods focus on catalyst chemical structure, which is challenging for metals and oxides.
• The chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect offers an alternative for tuning spin selectivity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate intrinsic chiral nanoparticles as electron-spin filters for tuning oxygen electrocatalytic reactions.
• To investigate the CISS-like effect in chiral gold nanoparticles for electrocatalysis.
• To develop chiral hybrid electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction and evolution reactions.

Main Methods:

• Synthesized chiral gold nanoparticles with a concave vortex cube structure.
• Overgrew catalytically active components (Pt, Ni(OH)2) onto chiral gold nanoparticles.
• Evaluated the chirality-dependent activity of hybrid electrocatalysts in oxygen electrocatalysis.

Main Results:

• Chiral gold nanoparticles exhibited tunable optical chirality and a CISS-like effect.
• Chiral hybrid electrocatalysts demonstrated chirality-dependent tunable activities in oxygen reduction and evolution reactions.
• Established a link between CISS effect and enhanced oxygen electrocatalysis.

Conclusions:

• Intrinsic chiral nanoparticles can serve as effective electron-spin filters in electrocatalysis.
• The CISS effect provides a novel mechanism for enhancing oxygen electrocatalysis.
• This work offers a framework for designing advanced chiral electrocatalysts for clean energy applications.