Asymmetric Rh-O-Co bridge sites enable superior bifunctional catalysis for hydrazine-assisted hydrogen production.

Hydrazine-assisted water splitting is a promising strategy for energy-efficient hydrogen production, yet challenges remain in developing effective catalysts that can concurrently catalyze both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR) in acidic media. Herein, we report an effective bifunctional catalyst consisting of Rh clusters anchored on CoO branched nanosheets (Rh-CoO BNSs) synthesized an innovative arginine-induced strategy. The Rh-CoO BNSs exhibit unique Rh-O-Co interfacial sites that facilitate charge redistribution between Rh clusters and the CoO substrate, thereby optimizing their valence electronic structures.

Cyanogel-Induced Facile Synthesis of Palladium Hydride for Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction.

Palladium hydride (PdH) is one of the well-known electrocatalytic materials, yet its synthesis is still a challenge through an energy-efficient and straightforward method. Herein, we propose a new and facile cyanogel-assisted synthesis strategy for the preparation of PdH at a mild environment with NaBH as the hydrogen source. Unlike traditional inorganic Pd precursors, the unique Pd-CN-Pd bridge in Pd[Pd(CN)] ⋅ aHO cyanogel offers more favourable spatial sites for insertion of H atoms.

Importing Antibonding-Orbital Occupancy through Pd-O-Gd Bridge Promotes Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction.

The active-site density, intrinsic activity, and durability of Pd-based materials for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) are critical to their application in industrial energy devices. This work constructs a series of carbon-based rare-earth (RE) oxides (Gd O , Sm O , Eu O , and CeO ) by using RE metal-organic frameworks to tune the ORR performance of the Pd sites through the Pd-RE O interface interaction. Taking Pd-Gd O /C as a representative, it is identified that the strong coupling between Pd and Gd O induces the formation of the Pd-O-Gd bridge, which triggers charge redistribution of Pd and Gd O .