Adv. Mater. - Crystal-phase-engineered high-entropy alloy aerogels for enhanced ethylamine electrosynthesis from acetonitrile

Honggang Huang^#, Cun Chen^#, Chun-Chi Chang, Feili Lai, Shangheng Liu, Hui Fu, Yao Chen, Hanjun Li, Wei-Hsiang Huang*, Nan Zhang*, Tianxi Liu*

Adv. Mater. 2024, DOI: 10.1002/adma.202314142

Crystal-phase engineering that promoting the rearrangement of active atoms to form new structural frameworks has achieved excellent result in the field of electrocatalysis and optimized the performance of various electrochemical reactions. Herein, for the first time, we found that the different components in metallic aerogels will affect the crystal-phase transformation, especially in high-entropy alloy aerogels (HEAAs), whose crystal-phase transformation during annealing is more difficult than medium-entropy alloy aerogels (MEAAs), but they still show better electrochemical performance. Specifically, PdPtCuCoNi HEAAs with the parent phase of face-centered cubic (FCC) PdCu possess excellent 89.24% of selectivity, 746.82 mmol h−1 g−1cat. of yield rate, and 90.75% of Faraday efficiency for ethylamine during acetonitrile reduction reaction (ARR), while maintaining stability under 50 h of long-term testing and 10 consecutive electrolysis cycles. The structure-activity relationship indicates that crystal-phase regulation from amorphous state to FCC phase promotes the atomic rearrangement in HEAAs, thereby optimizing the electronic structure, and enhancing the adsorption strength of reaction intermediates, improving the catalytic performance. This study provides a new paradigm for developing novel ARR electrocatalysts, and also expands the potential of crystal-phase engineering in other application areas.

Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.202314142