Dual-Intermetallic Heterostructure on Hierarchical Nanoporous Metal for Highly Efficient Alkaline Hydrogen Electrocatalysis.

Constructing well-defined active multisites is an effective strategy to break linear scaling relationships to develop high-efficiency catalysts toward multiple-intermediate reactions. Here, dual-intermetallic heterostructure composed of tungsten-bridged CoW and WNi intermetallic compounds seamlessly integrated on hierarchical nanoporous nickel skeleton is reported as a high-performance nonprecious electrocatalyst for alkaline hydrogen evolution and oxidation reactions. By virtue of interfacial tungsten atoms configuring contiguous multisites with proper adsorptions of hydrogen and hydroxyl intermediates to accelerate water dissociation/combination and column-nanostructured nickel skeleton facilitating electron and ion/molecule transportations, nanoporous nickel-supported CoW-WNi heterostructure exhibits exceptional hydrogen electrocatalysis in alkaline media, with outstanding durability and impressive catalytic activities for hydrogen oxidation reaction (geometric exchange current density of ≈6.

In Situ Engineering Multifunctional Active Sites of Ruthenium-Nickel Alloys for pH-Universal Ampere-Level Current-Density Hydrogen Evolution.

Developing robust non-platinum electrocatalysts with multifunctional active sites for pH-universal hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is crucial for scalable hydrogen production through electrochemical water splitting. Here ultra-small ruthenium-nickel alloy nanoparticles steadily anchored on reduced graphene oxide papers (Ru-Ni/rGOPs) as versatile electrocatalytic materials for acidic and alkaline HER are reported. These Ru-Ni alloy nanoparticles serve as pH self-adaptive electroactive species by making use of in situ surface reconstruction, where surface Ni atoms are hydroxylated to produce bifunctional active sites of Ru-Ni(OH) for alkaline HER, and selectively etched to form monometallic Ru active sites for acidic HER, respectively.

Lamella-heterostructured nanoporous bimetallic iron-cobalt alloy/oxyhydroxide and cerium oxynitride electrodes as stable catalysts for oxygen evolution.

Developing robust nonprecious-metal electrocatalysts with high activity towards sluggish oxygen-evolution reaction is paramount for large-scale hydrogen production via electrochemical water splitting. Here we report that self-supported laminate composite electrodes composed of alternating nanoporous bimetallic iron-cobalt alloy/oxyhydroxide and cerium oxynitride (FeCo/CeON) heterolamellas hold great promise as highly efficient electrocatalysts for alkaline oxygen-evolution reaction. By virtue of three-dimensional nanoporous architecture to offer abundant and accessible electroactive CoFeOOH/CeON heterostructure interfaces through facilitating electron transfer and mass transport, nanoporous FeCo/CeON composite electrodes exhibit superior oxygen-evolution electrocatalysis in 1 M KOH, with ultralow Tafel slope of ~33 mV dec.

Surface-Alloyed Nanoporous Zinc as Reversible and Stable Anodes for High-Performance Aqueous Zinc-Ion Battery.

Metallic zinc (Zn) is one of the most attractive multivalent-metal anode materials in post-lithium batteries because of its high abundance, low cost and high theoretical capacity. However, it usually suffers from large voltage polarization, low Coulombic efficiency and high propensity for dendritic failure during Zn stripping/plating, hindering the practical application in aqueous rechargeable zinc-metal batteries (AR-ZMBs). Here we demonstrate that anionic surfactant-assisted in situ surface alloying of Cu and Zn remarkably improves Zn reversibility of 3D nanoporous Zn electrodes for potential use as high-performance AR-ZMB anode materials.

Aluminum-copper alloy anode materials for high-energy aqueous aluminum batteries.

Aqueous aluminum batteries are promising post-lithium battery technologies for large-scale energy storage applications because of the raw materials abundance, low costs, safety and high theoretical capacity. However, their development is hindered by the unsatisfactory electrochemical behaviour of the Al metal electrode due to the presence of an oxide layer and hydrogen side reaction. To circumvent these issues, we report aluminum-copper alloy lamellar heterostructures as anode active materials.