Tailored (LaPrNdTbDy)CeO as a Highly Active and Stable Nanocatalyst for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction.

Designing highly active and robust catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction is key to improving the overall efficiency of the water splitting reaction. It has been previously demonstrated that evaporation induced self-assembly (EISA) can be used to synthesize highly porous and high surface area cerate-based fluorite nanocatalysts, and that substitution of Ce with 50% rare earth (RE) cations significantly improves electrocatalyst activity. Herein, the defect structure of the best performing nanocatalyst in the series are further explored, NdCeO, with a combination of neutron diffraction and neutron pair distribution function analysis.

Persistent Structure and Frustrated Magnetism in High Entropy Rare-Earth Zirconates.

The configurational complexity and distinct local atomic environments of high entropy oxides remain largely unexplored, leaving structure-property relationships and the hypothesis that the family offers rich tunability for applications ambiguous. This work investigates the influence of cation size and materials synthesis in determining the resulting structure and magnetic properties of a family of high entropy rare-earth zirconates (HEREZs, nominal composition RE Zr O with RE = rare-earth element combinations including Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, La, or Sc). The structural characterization of the series is examined through synchrotron X-ray diffraction and pair distribution function analysis, and electron microscopy, demonstrating average defect-fluorite structures with considerable local disorder, in all samples.

Effect of Ligand Polarity on the Internal Dipoles and Ferroelectric Distortion in BaTiO Nanocubes.

Surface adsorbates and surrounding matrix species have been demonstrated to affect the properties of nanoscale ferroelectrics and nanoscale ferroelectric composites; potentially counteracting performance losses that can occur in small particle sizes. In this work, the effects of nonpolar oleic acid (OA) and polar tetrafluoroborate (BF ) ligand capping on the surface of various sizes of BaTiO nanocubes have been investigated with combined neutron diffraction and neutron pair distribution function (PDF), density functional theory (DFT), and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) methods. The low real space PDF region provides an unobstructed view of rhombohedral (split short and long) Ti-O distances in BaTiO nanocubes, mimicking the well-established order-disorder local structure found in bulk BaTiO .

Nanostructured core-shell metal borides-oxides as highly efficient electrocatalysts for photoelectrochemical water oxidation.

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts are critical components of photoanodes for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water oxidation. Herein, nanostructured metal boride MB (M = Co, Fe) electrocatalysts, which have been synthesized by a Sn/SnCl redox assisted solid-state method, were integrated with WO thin films to build heterojunction photoanodes. As-obtained MB modified WO photoanodes exhibit enhanced charge carrier transport, amended separation of photogenerated electrons and holes, prolonged hole lifetime and increased charge carrier density.

A Simple, General Synthetic Route toward Nanoscale Transition Metal Borides.

Most nanomaterials, such as transition metal carbides, phosphides, nitrides, chalcogenides, etc., have been extensively studied for their various properties in recent years. The similarly attractive transition metal borides, on the contrary, have seen little interest from the materials science community, mainly because nanomaterials are notoriously difficult to synthesize.

Graphene- and Phosphorene-like Boron Layers with Contrasting Activities in Highly Active MoB for Hydrogen Evolution.

Two different boron layers, flat (graphene-like) and puckered (phosphorene-like), found in the crystal structure of MoB show drastically different activities for hydrogen evolution, according to Gibbs free energy calculations of H-adsorption on MoB. The graphene-like B layer is highly active, whereas the phosphorene-like B layer performs very poorly for hydrogen evolution. A new Sn-flux synthesis permits the rapid single-phase synthesis of MoB, and electrochemical analyses show that it is one of the best hydrogen evolution reaction active bulk materials with good long-term cycle stability under acidic conditions.

Controlled Synthesis of Highly Crystallized Mesoporous Mn2 O3 and Mn3 O4 by Using Anionic Surfactants.

Mesostructured manganese oxide (Mn3 O4 ) is prepared by a soft-templating method employing sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as a structure-directing agent. By removing the template from the as-prepared mesostructured Mn3 O4 by extraction or calcination, we successfully synthesized highly crystallized mesoporous Mn3 O4 or Mn2 O3 , respectively, with different crystalline structures.