Synergistic Entropy-Rich Alloy Effect and Metal-Support Interaction Fine-Tune the Electronic Structure for Augmented...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Electrochemistry
• Catalysis

Background:

• Developing efficient electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is crucial for energy conversion technologies.
• Precise regulation of electronic structures at active sites is key to enhancing catalytic activity.
• Understanding the mechanism of catalytic activity is essential for designing high-performance materials.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel quinary catalyst for efficient OER electrocatalysis.
• To investigate a dual-mode electronic structure fine-tuning strategy.
• To elucidate the underlying mechanism of enhanced catalytic activity.

Main Methods:

• Utilized NaCl-templated assisted pyrolysis to synthesize a quinary NiCoFeMoZn catalyst.
• Created a heterostructure of Zn-doped NiCoFe alloy and Mo_xC phases within a carbon sponge.
• Employed entropy-induced modulation and metal-support interactions for electronic structure regulation.

Main Results:

• The quinary NiCoFeMoZn catalyst exhibited a low overpotential of 286 mV at 10 mA cm^-2.
• Achieved superior performance compared to quaternary and ternary catalysts.
• Confirmed the universality of the dual-modality approach through experimental and theoretical studies.

Conclusions:

• The developed quinary NiCoFeMoZn catalyst shows high activity for OER.
• The dual-mode electronic structure tuning strategy effectively enhances electrocatalytic performance.
• This approach provides a novel pathway for designing advanced OER electrocatalysts.