Nonbonding Metal-Metal Interaction in Metal-Nitrogen-Carbon Single-Atom Catalysts Boosts CO Electroreduction.

Metal-nitrogen-carbon single-atom catalysts (SACs) have recently emerged as selective electrocatalysts for the reduction of CO2 to CO, but their ability to further electroreduce CO is poor. Here, based on constant-potential density functional theory simulations, we predict that Co-N-M (M = Fe, Co) SACs with nonbonding metallic centers bridged by a common nitrogen atom can catalyze four-electron reduction of CO to methanol at an ultralow overpotential of 220-310 mV. We show that the metal atoms in the SACs are terminated by H species which prevent the formation of σ bonding between CO and the metal atoms. Thanks to the nonbonding electrostatic repulsion between Co and its adjacent M atom, the Co dxz band is broadened and shifted toward the Fermi level, leading to enhanced dxz - 2π* interaction that gives rise to stable CO adsorption and promotes its active and selective reduction. This work offers an alternative strategy to tackle the challenge of CO electroreduction on SACs and highlights the role of nonbonding metal-metal interactions in modulating adsorption properties of SACs.

Observation of Fast Low-Temperature Oxygen Ion Conduction in CeO2/ß"-Al2O3 Heterostructure.

Semiconductor ion fuel cells (SIFCs) have demonstrated impressive ionic conductivity and efficient power generation at temperatures below 600 °C. However, the lack of understanding of the ionic conduction mechanisms associated with composite electrolytes has impeded the advancement of SIFCs toward lower operating temperatures. In this study, a CeO2/ß″-Al2O3 heterostructure electrolyte is introduced, incorporating ß″-Al2O3 and leveraging the local electric field (LEF) as well as the manipulation of the melting point temperature of carbonate/hydroxide (C/H) by Na+ and Mg2+ from ß″-Al2O3. This design successfully maintains swift interfacial conduction of oxygen ions at 350 °C. Consequently, the fuel cell device achieved an exceptional ionic conductivity of 0.019 S/cm and a power output of 85.9 mW/cm2 at 350 °C. The system attained a peak power density of 1 W/cm2 with an ultra-high ionic conductivity of 0.197 S/cm at 550 °C. The results indicate that through engineering the LEF and incorporating the lower melting point C/H, there approach effectively observed oxygen ion transport at low temperatures (350 °C), effectively overcoming the issue of cell failure at temperatures below 419 °C. This study presents a promising methodology for further developing high-performance semiconductor ion fuel cells in the low temperature range of 300-600 °C.

Metabolomics analysis of the yolk of Zhijin white goose during the embryogenesis based on LC-MS/MS.

The egg yolk of the goose is rich in lipids, proteins and minerals, which is the main source of nutrition during the goose embryogenesis. Actually, the magnitude and variety of nutrients in yolk are dynamically changed to satisfy the nutritional requirements of different growth and development periods. The yolk sac membrane (YSM) plays a role in metabolizing and absorbing nutrients from the yolk, which are then consumed by the embryo or extra-fetal tissues. Therefore, identification of metabolites in egg yolk can help to reveal nutrient requirement in goose embryo. In this research, to explore the metabolite changes in egg yolk at embryonic day (E) 7, E12, E18, E23, and E28, we performed the assay using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). The findings showed that E7 and E12, E23 and E28 were grouped together, while E18 was significantly separated from other groups, indicating the changes of egg yolk development and metabolism. In total, 1472 metabolites were identified in the egg yolk of Zhijin white goose, and 636 differential metabolites (DMs) were screened, among which 264 were upregulated and 372 were downregulated. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis showed that the DMs were enriched in the biosynthesis and metabolism of amino acids, digestion and absorption of protein, citrate cycle (TCA cycle), aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis, phosphotransferase system (PTS), mineral absorption, cholesterol metabolism and pyrimidine metabolism. Our study may provide new ideas for improving prehatch embryonic health and nutrition.

S-Block Potassium Single-atom Electrocatalyst with K-N4 Configuration Derived from K+ /Polydopamine for Efficient Oxygen Reduction.

Currently, single-atom catalysts (SACs) research mainly focuses on transition metal atoms as active centers. Due to their delocalized s/p-bands, the s-block main group metal elements are typically regarded as catalytically inert. Herein, an s-block potassium SAC (K-N-C) with K-N4 configuration is reported for the first time, which exhibits excellent oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity and stability under alkaline conditions. Specifically, the half-wave potential (E1/2 ) is up to 0.908 V, and negligible changes in E1/2 are observed after 10,000 cycles. In addition, the K-N-C offers an exceptional power density of 158.1 mW cm-2 and remarkable durability up to 420 h in a Zn-air battery. Density functional theory (DFT) simulations show that K-N-C has bifunctional active K and C sites, can optimize the free energy of ORR reaction intermediates, and adjust the rate-determining steps. The crystal orbital Hamilton population (COHP) results showed that the s orbitals of K played a major role in the adsorption of intermediates, which was different from the d orbitals in transition metals. This work significantly guides the rational design and catalytic mechanism research of s-block SACs with high ORR activity.

Single-Atom Cr-N4 Sites with High Oxophilicity Interfaced with Pt Atomic Clusters for Practical Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution Catalysis.

Although dispersing Pt atomic clusters (ACs) on a conducting support is a promising way to minimize the Pt amount required in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), the catalytic mass activity and durability of Pt ACs are often unsatisfactory for alkaline HER due to their unfavorable water dissociation and challenges in stabilizing them against agglomeration and detachment. Herein, we report a class of single-atom Cr-N4 sites with high oxophilicity interfaced with Pt ACs on mesoporous carbon for achieving a highly active and stable alkaline HER in an anion-exchange-membrane water electrolyzer (AEMWE). The as-made catalyst achieves the highest reported Pt mass activity (37.6 times higher than commercial Pt/C) and outstanding operational stability. Experimental and theoretical studies elucidate that the formation of a unique Pt-Cr quasi-covalent bonding interaction at the interface of Cr-N4 sites and Pt ACs effectively suppresses the migration and thermal vibration of Pt atoms to stabilize Pt ACs and contributes to the greatly enhanced catalytic stability. Moreover, oxophilic Cr-N4 sites adjacent to Pt ACs with favorable adsorption of hydroxyl species facilitate nearly barrierless water dissociation and thus enhance the HER activity. An AEMWE using this catalyst (with only 50 µgPt cm-2) can operate stably at an industrial-level current density of 500 mA cm-2 at 1.8 V for >100 h with a small degradation rate of 90 µV h-1.

Au/Pt Bimetallic Nanowires with Stepped Pt Sites for Enhanced C-C Cleavage in C2+ Alcohol Electro-oxidation Reactions.

Efficient C-C bond cleavage and oxidation of alcohols to CO2 is the key to developing highly efficient alcohol fuel cells for renewable energy applications. In this work, we report the synthesis of core/shell Au/Pt nanowires (NWs) with stepped Pt clusters deposited along the ultrathin (2.3 nm) stepped Au NWs as an active catalyst to effectively oxidize alcohols to CO2. The catalytic oxidation reaction is dependent on the Au/Pt ratios, and the Au1.0/Pt0.2 NWs have the largest percentage (∼75%) of stepped Au/Pt sites and show the highest activity for ethanol electro-oxidation, reaching an unprecedented 196.9 A/mgPt (32.5 A/mgPt+Au). This NW catalyst is also active in catalyzing the oxidation of other primary alcohols, such as methanol, n-propanol, and ethylene glycol. In situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy are used to characterize the catalyst structure and to identify key reaction intermediates, providing concrete evidence that the synergy between the low-coordinated Pt sites and the stepped Au NWs is essential to catalyze the alcohol oxidation reaction, which is further supported by DFT calculations that the C-C bond cleavage is indeed enhanced on the undercoordinated Pt-Au surface. Our study provides important evidence that a core/shell structure with stepped core/shell sites is essential to enhance electrochemical oxidation of alcohols and will also be central to understanding electro-oxidation reactions and to the future development of highly efficient direct alcohol fuel cells for renewable energy applications.

Breaking the Scaling Relationship on Single-Atom Embedded MBene for Selective CO2 Electroreduction.

Highly active and selective electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) to chemicals and fuels is crucial for clean energy production and environmental remediation. Although transition metals and their alloys are widely used to catalyze CO2RR, their activity and selectivity are generally unsatisfactory, hindered by energy scaling relationships among the reaction intermediates. Herein, we generalize the multisite functionalization strategy to single-atom catalysts in order to circumvent the scaling relationships for CO2RR. We predict that single transition metal atoms embedded in two-dimensional Mo2B2 could be exceptional catalysts for CO2RR. We show that the single-atoms (SAs) and their adjacent Mo atoms can only bind to carbon and oxygen atom, respectively, thus enabling dual site functionalization to circumvent the scaling relationships. Following extensive first-principles calculations, we discover two SA-Mo2B2 single-atom catalysts (SA = Rh and Ir) that can produce methane and methanol with an ultralow overpotential of -0.32 and -0.27 V, respectively.

Inducing Covalent Atomic Interaction in Intermetallic Pt Alloy Nanocatalysts for High-Performance Fuel Cells.

The harsh working environments of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) pose huge challenges to the stability of Pt-based alloy catalysts. The widespread presence of metallic bonds with significantly delocalized electron distribution often lead to component segregation and rapid performance decay. Here we report L10 -Pt2 CuGa intermetallic nanoparticles with a unique covalent atomic interaction between Pt-Ga as high-performance PEMFC cathode catalysts. The L10 -Pt2 CuGa/C catalyst shows superb oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity and stability in fuel cell cathode (mass activity=0.57 A mgPt -1 at 0.9 V, peak power density=2.60/1.24 W cm-2 in H2 -O2 /air, 28 mV voltage loss at 0.8 A cm-2 after 30 000 cycles). Theoretical calculations reveal the optimized adsorption of oxygen intermediates via the formed biaxial strain on L10 -Pt2 CuGa surface, and the durability enhancement stems from the stronger Pt-M bonds than those in L11 -PtCu resulted from Pt-Ga covalent interactions.

Anti-dissolution Pt single site with Pt(OH)(O3)/Co(P) coordination for efficient alkaline water splitting electrolyzer.

As the most well-known electrocatalyst for cathodic hydrogen evolution in water splitting electrolyzers, platinum is unfortunately inefficient for anodic oxygen evolution due to its over-binding with oxygen species and excessive dissolution in oxidative environment. Herein we show that single Pt atoms dispersed in cobalt hydrogen phosphate with an unique Pt(OH)(O3)/Co(P) coordination can achieve remarkable catalytic activity and stability for oxygen evolution. The catalyst yields a high turnover frequency (35.1 ± 5.2 s-1) and mass activity (69.5 ± 10.3 A mg-1) at an overpotential of 300 mV and excellent stability. Mechanistic studies elucidate that the superior catalytic performance of isolated Pt atoms herein stems from optimal binding energies of oxygen intermediate and also their strong electronic coupling with neighboring Co atoms that suppresses the formation of soluble Ptx>4 species. Alkaline water electrolyzers assembled with an ultralow Pt loading realizes an industrial-level current density of 1 A cm-2 at 1.8 volts with a high durability.

Circumventing the scaling relationship on bimetallic monolayer electrocatalysts for selective CO2 reduction.

Electrochemical conversion of CO2 into value-added chemicals continues to draw interest in renewable energy applications. Although many metal catalysts are active in the CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR), their reactivity and selectivity are nonetheless hindered by the competing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The competition of the HER and CO2RR stems from the energy scaling relationship between their reaction intermediates. Herein, we predict that bimetallic monolayer electrocatalysts (BMEs) - a monolayer of transition metals on top of extended metal substrates - could produce dual-functional active sites that circumvent the scaling relationship between the adsorption energies of HER and CO2RR intermediates. The antibonding interaction between the adsorbed H and the metal substrate is revealed to be responsible for circumventing the scaling relationship. Based on extensive density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we identify 11 BMEs which are highly active and selective toward the formation of formic acid with a much suppressed HER. The H-substrate antibonding interaction also leads to superior CO2RR performance on monolayer-coated penta-twinned nanowires.

Atomically Isolated Rh Sites within Highly Branched Rh2 Sb Nanostructures Enhance Bifunctional Hydrogen Electrocatalysis.

Breaking the bottleneck of hydrogen oxidation/evolution reactions (HOR/HER) in alkaline media is of tremendous importance for the development of anion exchange membrane fuel cells/water electrolyzers. Atomically dispersed active sites are known to exhibit excellent activity and selectivity toward diverse catalytic reactions. Here, a class of unique Rh2 Sb nanocrystals with multiple nanobranches (denoted as Rh2 Sb NBs) and atomically dispersed Rh sites are reported as promising electrocatalysts for alkaline HOR/HER. Rh2 Sb NBs/C exhibits superior HER performance with a low overpotential and a small Tafel slope, outperforming both Rh NBs/C and commercial Pt/C. Significantly, Rh2 Sb NBs show outstanding HOR performance of which the HOR specific activity and mass activity are about 9.9 and 10.1 times to those of Rh NBs/C, and about 4.2 and 3.7 times to those of Pt/C, respectively. Strikingly, Rh2 Sb NBs can also exhibit excellent CO tolerance during HOR, whose activity can be largely maintained even at 100 ppm CO impurity. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the unsaturated Rh sites on Rh2 Sb NBs surface are crucial for the enhanced alkaline HER and HOR activities. This work provides a unique catalyst design for efficient hydrogen electrocatalysis, which is critical for the development of alkaline fuel cells and beyond.

Improving the Stability of Non-Noble-Metal M-N-C Catalysts for Proton-Exchange-Membrane Fuel Cells through M-N Bond Length and Coordination Regulation.

An effective and universal strategy is developed to enhance the stability of the non-noble-metal M-Nx /C catalyst in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) by improving the bonding strength between metal ions and chelating polymers, i.e., poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) homopolymer and poly(acrylic acid-maleic acid) (P(AA-MA)) copolymer with different AA/MA ratios. Mössbauer spectroscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) reveal that the optimal P(AA-MA)-Fe-N catalyst with a higher Fe3+ -polymer binding constant possesses longer FeN bonds and exclusive Fe-N4 /C moiety compared to PAA-Fe-N, which consists of ≈15% low-coordinated Fe-N2 /N3 structures. The optimized P(AA-MA)-Fe-N catalyst exhibits outstanding ORR activity and stability in both half-cell and PEMFC cathodes, with the retention rate of current density approaching 100% for the first 37 h at 0.55 V in an H2 -air fuel cell. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest that the Fe-N4 /C site could optimize the difference between the adsorption energy of the Fe atoms on the support (Ead ) and the bulk cohesive energy (Ecoh ) relative to Fe-N2 /N3 moieties, thereby strongly stabilizing Fe centers against demetalation.

Sub-Monolayer YOx /MoOx on Ultrathin Pt Nanowires Boosts Alcohol Oxidation Electrocatalysis.

A crucial issue restricting the application of direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs) is the low activity of Pt-based electrocatalysts for alcohol oxidation reaction caused by the reaction intermediate (CO*) poisoning. Herein, a new strategy is demonstrated for making a class of sub-monolayer YOx /MoOx -surface co-decorated ultrathin platinum nanowires (YOx /MoOx -Pt NWs) to effectively eliminate the CO poisoning for enhancing methanol oxidation electrocatalysis. By adjusting the amounts of YOx and MoOx decorated on the surface of ultrathin Pt NWs, the optimized 22% YOx /MoOx -Pt NWs achieve a high specific activity of 3.35 mA cm-2 and a mass activity of 2.10 A mgPt -1 , as well as the enhanced stability. In situ Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and CO stripping studies confirm the contribution of YOx and MoOx to anti-CO poisoning ability of the NWs. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations further reveal that the surface Y and Mo atoms with oxidation states allow COOH* to bind the surface through both the carbon and oxygen atoms, which can lower the free energy barriers for the oxidation of CO* into COOH*. The optimal NWs also show the superior activities toward the electro-oxidation of ethanol, ethylene glycol, and glycerol.

Highly Surface-Distorted Pt Superstructures for Multifunctional Electrocatalysis.

Platinum (Pt) catalysts play a key role in energy conversion and storage processes, but the realization of further performance enhancement remains challenging. Herein, we report a new class of Pt superstructures (SSs) with surface distortion engineering by electrochemical leaching of PtTex SSs that can largely boost the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR), and the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In particular, the high-distortion (H)-Pt SSs achieve a mass activity of 2.24 A mg-1 at 0.90 VRHE for the ORR and 2.89 A mg-1 for the MOR as well as a low overpotential of 25.3 mV at 10 mA cm-2 for the HER. Moreover, the distorted surface features of Pt SSs can be preserved by mitigating the detrimental effects of agglomeration/degradation during long-time electrocatalysis. A multiscale modeling demonstrates that surface compressions, defects, and nanopores act in synergy for the enhanced ORR performance. This work highlights the advances of stable superstructure and distortion engineering for realizing high-performance Pt nanostructures.

Exclusive Strain Effect Boosts Overall Water Splitting in PdCu/Ir Core/Shell Nanocrystals.

Core/shell nanocatalysts are a class of promising materials, which achieve the enhanced catalytic activities through the synergy between ligand effect and strain effect. However, it has been challenging to disentangle the contributions from the two effects, which hinders the rational design of superior core/shell nanocatalysts. Herein, we report precise synthesis of PdCu/Ir core/shell nanocrystals, which can significantly boost oxygen evolution reaction (OER) via the exclusive strain effect. The heteroepitaxial coating of four Ir atomic layers onto PdCu nanoparticle gives a relatively thick Ir shell eliminating the ligand effect, but creates a compressive strain of ca. 3.60%. The strained PdCu/Ir catalysts can deliver a low OER overpotential and a high mass activity. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the compressive strain in Ir shell downshifts the d-band center and weakens the binding of the intermediates, causing the enhanced OER activity. The compressive strain also boosts hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity and the strained nanocrystals can be served as excellent catalysts for both anode and cathode in overall water-splitting electrocatalysis.

Steering elementary steps towards efficient alkaline hydrogen evolution via size-dependent Ni/NiO nanoscale heterosurfaces.

Alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), consisting of Volmer and Heyrovsky/Tafel steps, requires extra energy for water dissociation, leading to more sluggish kinetics than acidic HER. Despite the advances in electrocatalysts, how to combine active sites to synergistically promote both steps and understand the underlying mechanism remain largely unexplored. Here, Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations predict that NiO accelerates the Volmer step while metallic Ni facilitates the Heyrovsky/Tafel step. A facile strategy is thus developed to control Ni/NiO heterosurfaces in uniform and well-dispersed Ni-based nanocrystals, targeting both reaction steps synergistically. By systematically modulating the surface composition, we find that steering the elementary steps through tuning the Ni/NiO ratio can significantly enhance alkaline HER activity, and Ni/NiO nanocrystals with a Ni/NiO ratio of 23.7% deliver the best activity, outperforming other state-of-the-art analogues. The results suggest that integrating bicomponent active sites for elementary steps is effective for promoting alkaline HER, but they have to be balanced.

Cu3N Nanocubes for Selective Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 to Ethylene.

Understanding the Cu-catalyzed electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) under ambient conditions is both fundamentally interesting and technologically important for selective CO2RR to hydrocarbons. Current Cu catalysts studied for the CO2RR can show high activity but tend to yield a mixture of different hydrocarbons, posing a serious challenge on using any of these catalysts for selective CO2RR. Here, we report a new perovskite-type copper(I) nitride (Cu3N) nanocube (NC) catalyst for selective CO2RR. The 25 nm Cu3N NCs show high CO2RR selectivity and stability to ethylene (C2H4) at -1.6 V (vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)) with the Faradaic efficiency of 60%, mass activity of 34 A/g, and C2H4/CH4 molar ratio of >2000. More detailed electrochemical characterization, X-ray photon spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations suggest that the high CO2RR selectivity is likely a result of (100) Cu(I) stabilization by the Cu3N structure, which favors CO-CHO coupling on the (100) Cu3N surface, leading to selective formation of C2H4. Our study presents a good example of utilizing metal nitrides as highly efficient nanocatalysts for selective CO2RR to hydrocarbons that will be important for sustainable chemistry/energy applications.

PdMo bimetallene for oxygen reduction catalysis.

The efficient interconversion of chemicals and electricity through electrocatalytic processes is central to many renewable-energy initiatives. The sluggish kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER)1-4 has long posed one of the biggest challenges in this field, and electrocatalysts based on expensive platinum-group metals are often required to improve the activity and durability of these reactions. The use of alloying5-7, surface strain8-11 and optimized coordination environments12 has resulted in platinum-based nanocrystals that enable very high ORR activities in acidic media; however, improving the activity of this reaction in alkaline environments remains challenging because of the difficulty in achieving optimized oxygen binding strength on platinum-group metals in the presence of hydroxide. Here we show that PdMo bimetallene-a palladium-molybdenum alloy in the form of a highly curved and sub-nanometre-thick metal nanosheet-is an efficient and stable electrocatalyst for the ORR and the OER in alkaline electrolytes, and shows promising performance as a cathode in Zn-air and Li-air batteries. The thin-sheet structure of PdMo bimetallene enables a large electrochemically active surface area (138.7 square metres per gram of palladium) as well as high atomic utilization, resulting in a mass activity towards the ORR of 16.37 amperes per milligram of palladium at 0.9 volts versus the reversible hydrogen electrode in alkaline electrolytes. This mass activity is 78 times and 327 times higher than those of commercial Pt/C and Pd/C catalysts, respectively, and shows little decay after 30,000 potential cycles. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the alloying effect, the strain effect due to the curved geometry, and the quantum size effect due to the thinness of the sheets tune the electronic structure of the system for optimized oxygen binding. Given the properties and the structure-activity relationships of PdMo metallene, we suggest that other metallene materials could show great promise in energy electrocatalysis.

Tungsten-Doped L10 -PtCo Ultrasmall Nanoparticles as a High-Performance Fuel Cell Cathode.

The commercialization of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) relies on highly active and stable electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in acid media. The most successful catalysts for this reaction are nanostructured Pt-alloy with a Pt-skin. The synthesis of ultrasmall and ordered L10 -PtCo nanoparticle ORR catalysts further doped with a few percent of metals (W, Ga, Zn) is reported. Compared to commercial Pt/C catalyst, the L10 -W-PtCo/C catalyst shows significant improvement in both initial activity and high-temperature stability. The L10 -W-PtCo/C catalyst achieves high activity and stability in the PEMFC after 50 000 voltage cycles at 80 °C, which is superior to the DOE 2020 targets. EXAFS analysis and density functional theory calculations reveal that W doping not only stabilizes the ordered intermetallic structure, but also tunes the Pt-Pt distances in such a way to optimize the binding energy between Pt and O intermediates on the surface.