Fluorine-Lodged High-Valent High-Entropy Layered Double Hydroxide for Efficient, Long-Lasting Zinc-Air Batteries.

Efficient and stable bifunctional oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts are urgently needed to unlock the full potential of zinc-air batteries (ZABs). High-valence oxides (HVOs) and high entropy oxides (HEOs) are suitable candidates for their optimal electronic structures and stability but suffer from demanding synthesis. Here, a low-cost fluorine-lodged high-valent high-entropy layered double hydroxide (HV-HE-LDH) (FeCoNiF(OH)) is conveniently prepared through multi-ions co-precipitation, where F are firmly embedded into the individual hydroxide layers.

Wood-inspired metamaterial catalyst for robust and high-throughput water purification.

Continuous industrialization and other human activities have led to severe water quality deterioration by harmful pollutants. Achieving robust and high-throughput water purification is challenging due to the coupling between mechanical strength, mass transportation and catalytic efficiency. Here, a structure-function integrated system is developed by Douglas fir wood-inspired metamaterial catalysts featuring overlapping microlattices with bimodal pores to decouple the mechanical, transport and catalytic performances.

Twinning Engineering of Platinum/Iridium Nanonets as Turing-Type Catalysts for Efficient Water Splitting.

The twin boundary, a common lattice plane of mirror-symmetric crystals, may have high reactivity due to special atomic coordination. However, twinning platinum and iridium nanocatalysts are grand challenges due to the high stacking fault energies that are nearly 1 order of magnitude larger than those of easy-twinning gold and silver. Here, we demonstrate that Turing structuring, realized by selective etching of superthin metal film, provides 14.

Phase Engineering of Nanostructural Metallic Materials: Classification, Structures, and Applications.

Metallic materials are usually composed of single phase or multiple phases, which refers to homogeneous regions with distinct types of the atom arrangement. The recent studies on nanostructured metallic materials provide a variety of promising approaches to engineer the phases at the nanoscale. Tailoring phase size, phase distribution, and introducing new structures via phase transformation contribute to the precise modification in deformation behaviors and electronic structures of nanostructural metallic materials.

Turing structuring with multiple nanotwins to engineer efficient and stable catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction.

Low-dimensional nanocrystals with controllable defects or strain modifications are newly emerging active electrocatalysts for hydrogen-energy conversion and utilization; however, a crucial challenge remains in insufficient stability due to spontaneous structural degradation and strain relaxation. Here we report a Turing structuring strategy to activate and stabilize superthin metal nanosheets by incorporating high-density nanotwins. Turing configuration, realized by constrained orientation attachment of nanograins, yields intrinsically stable nanotwin network and straining effects, which synergistically reduce the energy barrier of water dissociation and optimize the hydrogen adsorption free energy for hydrogen evolution reaction.

High-entropy induced a glass-to-glass transition in a metallic glass.

Glass-to-glass transitions are useful for us to understand the glass nature, but it remains difficult to tune the metallic glass into significantly different glass states. Here, we have demonstrated that the high-entropy can enhance the degree of disorder in an equiatomic high-entropy metallic glass NbNiZrTiCo and elevate it to a high-energy glass state. An unusual glass-to-glass phase transition is discovered during heating with an enormous heat release even larger than that of the following crystallization at higher temperatures.

Porous composite architecture bestows Fe-based glassy alloy with high and ultra-durable degradation activity in decomposing azo dye.

Since the treatment of wastewater containing azo dye presents problems worldwide, it is important to seek effective materials and technology for the purification of wastewater containing azo dye. Fe-based metallic glasses have been identified as promising materials for the decomposition of dyeing wastewater due to their high chemical activity resulting from their amorphous structure. It is imperative to further improve their degradation performance, and especially their durability, for potential application in wastewater purification.