Chemical short-range order in multi-principal element alloy with ordering effects on water electrolysis performance

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

Materials Today

Volume

72

First Page

97

Last Page

108

Publisher

Elsevier

School

School of Engineering / Centre for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing

RAS ID

64565

Funders

National Natural Science Foundation of China / Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province / Jiangsu Provincial Key Research and Development Program / Start-up Research Fund of Southeast University / Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities / Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation / Science, Technology, and Innovation Commission of Shenzhen Municipality / Hong Kong RGC General Research Fund (GRF)

Comments

Yang, Y., Jia, Z., Zhang, X., Liu, Y., Wang, Q., Li, Y., . . . Shen, B. (2024). Chemical short-range order in multi-principal element alloy with ordering effects on water electrolysis performance. Materials Today, 72, 97-108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mattod.2023.12.006

Abstract

The superior electrocatalytic activity of multi-principal element alloys (MPEAs) is typically attributed to synergistic effects of their multi components in random solid solutions. Strategies to control the functional atoms with a chemically ordered atomic distribution and the specific atomic configuration in the MPEAs remain a challenging research topic. Here, we have discovered non-random, chemical short-range order (CSRO) in a Fe10Co5Ni10Cu15Al60 MPEA induced by magnetic characteristics of elements, leading to ultralow overpotential for dual-electrode water splitting in alkaline condition. Atomic-resolution imaging and elemental mapping assisted by statistical analysis and density functional theory (DFT) simulations revealed that CSRO in the MPEA originated from the nearest-neighbor preference of M-Cu (M = Fe, Co, Ni, and Al) pairs and repulsion of same-element pairs (Fe-Fe, Co-Co, Ni-Ni, Cu-Cu, and Al-Al). Such preferential atomic pairs facilitated H2O/H* adsorption/desorption during the hydrogen evolution reaction and reduced the energy barrier for the rate-determining step of the oxygen evolution reaction, thereby promoting excellent overall water splitting performance. The achieved current density (130 mA cm−2) of the low-cost MPEA was ∼4 times higher than that of the Pt/C||RuO2 dual-electrode system (32 mA cm−2) at a cell voltage of 2.0 V. The concept of CSRO in MPEAs offers new insights into their multi-functional applications, potentially spurring the development of numerous high-performance MPEA-based devices for the energy and environmental sectors.

DOI

10.1016/j.mattod.2023.12.006

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