Anodic Activation of Prussian Blue Analog Leads to Highly Active Cobalt-doped Nickel (Oxy)hydroxide for Organic Oxidation Reactions.

Water-assisted electrocatalytic oxidation of alcohols into valuable chemicals is a promising strategy to circumvent the sluggish kinetics of water oxidation, while also reducing cell voltage and improving energy efficiency. Recently, transition metal (TM)-based catalysts have been investigated for anodic alcohol oxidation, but success has been limited due to competition from the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) within the working regime. In this study, NiCo-based Prussian blue analog (PBA) was electrochemically activated at the anodic potential to produce a Co-Ni(O)OH active catalyst with a nanosheet-like architecture.

In Situ Metal Vacancy Filling in Stable Pd-Sn Intermetallic Catalyst for Enhanced CC Bond Cleavage in Ethanol Oxidation.

A common challenge in electrochemical processes is developing high performance, stable catalysts for specific chemical reactions. In this work, a Pd-Sn intermetallic compound with   Pd site deficiency (PdSn) (x = 0.06) and trace amount of SnO was synthesised by controlled process.

Distortion-Induced Interfacial Charge Transfer at Single Cobalt Atom Secured on Ordered Intermetallic Surface Enhances Pure Oxygen Production.

In this work, atomic cobalt (Co) incorporation into the PdGe intermetallic lattice facilitates generation of a thin layer of CoO over Co-substituted PdGe, with Co in the CoO surface layer functioning as single metal sites. Hence the catalyst has been titled Co-CoO-PdGe. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy confirm the existence of CoO, with some of the Co bonded to Ge by substitution of Pd sites in the PdGe lattice.

Highly Efficient Electrochemical Hydrogen Evolution with Ultra-Low Loading of Strongly Adhered Pt Nanoparticles on Carbon.

The development of robust electrocatalysts with low platinum content for acidic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is paramount for large scale commercialization of proton exchange membrane electrolyzers. Herein, a simple strategy is reported to synthesize a well anchored, low Pt containing Vulcan carbon catalyst using ZnO as a sacrificial template. Pt containing ZnO (PZ) is prepared by a simultaneous borohydride reduction.

Cobalt-Induced Phase Transformation of NiGa Generates Chiral Intermetallic CoNiGa.

The scientific community has found immense difficulty to focus on the generation of chiral intermetallics compared to the chiral molecular structure, probably due to the technical difficulty in producing them as no general controlled protocol is available. Herein, using a conventional metal flux technique, we have discovered a new ternary intermetallic CoNiGa, substituting Co at the Ni sublattice in a highly symmetric NiGa (a3̅). CoNiGa crystallizes in the 432 space group, a Sohncke type, and can host the chiral structure.

Wurtzite CuGaS with an In-Situ-Formed CuO Layer Photocatalyzes CO Conversion to Ethylene with High Selectivity.

We present surface reconstruction-induced C-C coupling whereby CO is converted into ethylene. The wurtzite phase of CuGaS undergoes in situ surface reconstruction, leading to the formation of a thin CuO layer over the pristine catalyst, which facilitates selective conversion of CO to ethylene (C H ). Upon illumination, the catalyst efficiently converts CO to C H with 75.

Intrinsic Charge Polarization in Bi S Cl Nanorods Promotes Selective CC Coupling Reaction during Photoreduction of CO to Ethanol.

Obtaining multi-carbon products via CO  photoreduction is a major catalytic challenge involving multielectron-mediated CC bond formation. Complex design of multicomponent interfaces that are exploited to achieve this chemical transformation, often leads to untraceable deleterious changes in the interfacial chemical environment affecting CO  conversion efficiency and product selectivity. Alternatively, robust metal centers having asymmetric charge distribution can effectuate CC coupling reaction through the stabilization of intermediates, for desired product selectivity.

Improvement in Oxygen Evolution Performance of NiFe Layered Double Hydroxide Grown in the Presence of 1T-Rich MoS.

NiFe layered double hydroxide (NiFe LDH) grown in the presence of MoS (rich in 1T phase) shows exceptional performance metrics for alkaline oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in this class of composites. The as-prepared NiFe LDH/MoS composite (abbreviated as MNF) exhibits a low overpotential (η) of 190 mV; a low Tafel slope of 31 mV dec; and more importantly, a high stability in its performance manifested by the delivery of current output for 45 h. It is important to note that this could be achieved with an exceedingly low loading of 0.

In Situ Mechanistic Insights for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Chemically Modulated Ordered Intermetallic Catalyst Promoting Complete Electron Transfer.

The well-known limitation of alkaline fuel cells is the slack kinetics of the cathodic half-cell reaction, the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Platinum, being the most active ORR catalyst, is still facing challenges due to its corrosive nature and sluggish kinetics. Many novel approaches for substituting Pt have been reported, which suffer from stability issues even after mighty modifications.

Morphology-Tuned Pt Ge Accelerates Water Dissociation to Industrial-Standard Hydrogen Production over a wide pH Range.

The discovery of novel materials for industrial-standard hydrogen production is the present need considering the global energy infrastructure. A novel electrocatalyst, Pt Ge, which is engineered with a desired crystallographic facet (202), accelerates hydrogen production by water electrolysis, and records industrially desired operational stability compared to the commercial catalyst platinum is introduced. Pt Ge-(202) exhibits low overpotential of 21.

Potential- and Time-Dependent Dynamic Nature of an Oxide-Derived PdIn Nanocatalyst during Electrochemical CO Reduction.

Electrochemical reduction of CO into valuable fuels and chemicals is a promising route of replacing fossil fuels by reducing CO emissions and minimizing its adverse effects on the climate. Tremendous efforts have been carried out for designing efficient catalyst materials to selectively produce the desired product in high yield from CO by the electrochemical process. In this work, a strategy is reported to enhance the electrochemical CO reduction reaction (ECORR) by constructing an interface between a metal-based alloy (PdIn) nanoparticle and an oxide (InO), which was synthesized by a facile solution method.

Structure-Tailored Surface Oxide on Cu-Ga Intermetallics Enhances CO Reduction Selectivity to Methanol at Ultralow Potential.

Electrochemical CO reduction reaction (eCO RR) is performed on two intermetallic compounds formed by copper and gallium metals (CuGa and Cu Ga ). Among them, CuGa selectively converts CO to methanol with remarkable Faradaic efficiency of 77.26% at an extremely low potential of -0.

Deconvolution of phase-size-strain effects in metal carbide nanocrystals for enhanced hydrogen evolution.

Understanding the descriptors of electrochemical activity and ways to modulate them are of paramount importance for the efficient structural engineering of electrocatalysts. Although, many studies separately elucidated the significance of thermodynamic and kinetic descriptors, lack of integrative approaches bars the potential utilization of these engineering tools for electrocatalytic activity enhancement. Here, through a facile post-carbonization synthetic technique using templated polyoxometalate based metal organic frameworks (POMOFs), we integrate three major structural engineering tools, viz.