Defect-Rich High-Entropy Oxide Nanosheets for Efficient 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural Electrooxidation

Interfacial Engineering of Ni/Ni0.2Mo0.8N Heterostructured Nanorods Realizes Efficient 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural Electrooxidation and Hydrogen Evolution

Simultaneously achieving electrochemical conversion of biomass-derived molecules into value-added products and energy-efficient hydrogen production is a highly attractive strategy but challenging. Herein, we reported a heterostructured Ni/Ni_0.2Mo_0.8N nanorod array electrocatalyst deposited on nickel foam (Ni/Ni_0.2Mo_0.8N/NF), which exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity toward 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) oxidation, and nearly 100% conversion of HMF and 98.5% yield of 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) products can be achieved. The post-reaction characterizations unveil that Ni species in Ni/Ni_0.2Mo_0.8N/NF would be readily converted to NiOOH as the real active sites. Furthermore, a two-electrode electrolyzer was assembled with Ni/Ni_0.2Mo_0.8N/NF utilized as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for both the cathode and anode, giving rise to a low voltage of 1.51 V to concurrently produce FDCA and H₂ at 50 mA cm^-2. This work enlightens the significance of regulating redox activities of transition metals via interfacial engineering and constructing heterostructured electrocatalysts toward more efficient energy utilization.

High-Entropy Enhanced Microwave Attenuation in Titanate Perovskites

High-entropy oxides (HEOs), which incorporate multiple-principal cations into single-phase crystals and interact with diverse metal ions, extend the border for available compositions and unprecedented properties. Herein, a high-entropy-stabilized (Ca_0.2 Sr_0.2 Ba_0.2 La_0.2 Pb_0.2 )TiO₃  perovskite is reported, and the effective absorption bandwidth (90% absorption) improves almost two times than that of BaTiO₃ . The results demonstrate that the regulation of entropy configuration can yield significant grain boundaries, oxygen defects, and an ultradense distorted lattice. These characteristics give rise to strong interfacial and defect-induced polarizations, thus synergistically contributing to the dielectric attenuation performance. Moreover, the large strains derived from the strong lattice distortions in the high-entropy perovskite offer varied transport for electron carriers. The high-entropy-enhanced positive/negative charges accumulation around grain boundaries and strain-concentrated location, quantitatively validated by electron holography, results in unusual dielectric polarization loss. This study opens up an effective avenue for designing strong microwave absorption materials to satisfy the increasingly demanding requirements of advanced and integrated electronics. This work also offers a paradigm for improving other interesting properties for HEOs through entropy engineering.

Flexible Zinc-Air Batteries with Ampere-Hour Capacities and Wide-Temperature Adaptabilities

Flexible Zn-air batteries (FZABs) have significant potentials as efficient energy storage devices for wearable electronics because of their safeties and high energy-to-cost ratios. However, their application is limited by their short cycle lives, low discharge capacities per cycle, and high charge/discharge polarizations. Accordingly, herein, a poly(sodium acrylate)-polyvinyl alcohol (PANa-PVA)-ionic liquid (IL) hydrogel (PANa-PVA-IL) is prepared using a hygroscopic IL, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, as an additive for twin-chain PANa-PVA. PANa-PVA-IL exhibits a high conductivity of 306.9 mS cm^-1 and a water uptake of 2515 wt% at room temperature. Moreover, a low-cost bifunctional catalyst, namely, Co₉ S₈ nanoparticles anchored on N- and S-co-doped activated carbon black pearls 2000 (Co₉ S₈ -NSABP), is synthesized, which demonstrates a low O₂ reversibility potential gap of 0.629 V. FZABs based on PANa-PVA-IL and Co₉ S₈ -NSABP demonstrate high discharge capacities of 1.67 mAh cm^-2 per cycle and long cycle lives of 330 h. Large-scale flexible rechargeable Zn-air pouch cells exhibit total capacities of 1.03 Ah and energy densities of 246 Wh kg_cell ^-1 . This study provides new information about hydrogels with high ionic conductivities and water uptakes and should facilitate the application of FZABs in wearable electronics.

Role of oxygen vacancy in spinel (FeCoNiCrMn)3O4 high entropy oxides prepared via two different methods for the selective CH bond oxidation of p-chlorotoluene

The selective CH bond oxidation of aromatic hydrocarbon is an interesting but challenging task, it is desirable to develop efficient heterogeneous non-noble metal catalyst for this reaction. Herein, two kinds of spinel (FeCoNiCrMn)₃O₄ high entropy oxides were fabricated via two different methods (i.e., c-FeCoNiCrMn, prepared by a co-precipitation method, and m-FeCoNiCrMn, prepared by physically mixing method). Different from traditional environmentally-unfriendly Co/Mn/Br system, the prepared catalysts were employed for the selective CH bond oxidation of p-chlorotoluene to p-chlorobenzaldehyde in a green approach. Compared to m-FeCoNiCrMn, c-FeCoNiCrMn have smaller particles size and larger specific surface area, which were related to the enhanced catalytic activity. More importantly, characterization results disclosed that abundant oxygen vacancies were formed over c-FeCoNiCrMn. Such a result facilitated the adsorption of p-chlorotoluene on the catalyst surface and promoted the formation of *ClPhCH₂O intermediate as well as the desired p-chlorobenzaldehyde, as revealed by DFT (Density functional theory) calculations. Besides, scavenger tests and EPR (Electron paramagnetic resonance) results indicated that hydroxyl radical derived from H₂O₂ homolysis was the main active oxidative species for this reaction. This work revealed the role of oxygen vacancy in spinel high entropy oxide and also demonstrated its promising application for the selective CH bond oxidation in an environmentally-benign approach.

Advances in Selective Electrochemical Oxidation of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural to Produce High-Value Chemicals

The conversion of biomass is a favorable alternative to the fossil energy route to solve the energy crisis and environmental pollution. As one of the most versatile platform compounds, 5-hydroxymethylfural (HMF) can be transformed to various value-added chemicals via electrolysis combining with renewable energy. Here, the recent advances in electrochemical oxidation of HMF, from reaction mechanism to reactor design are reviewed. First, the reaction mechanism and pathway are summarized systematically. Second, the parameters easy to be ignored are emphasized and discussed. Then, the electrocatalysts are reviewed comprehensively for different products and the reactors are introduced. Finally, future efforts on exploring reaction mechanism, electrocatalysts, and reactor are prospected. This review provides a deeper understanding of mechanism for electrochemical oxidation of HMF, the design of electrocatalyst and reactor, which is expected to promote the economical and efficient electrochemical conversion of biomass for industrial applications.

Designing strategies and enhancing mechanism for multicomponent high-entropy catalysts

High-entropy materials (HEMs) are new-fashioned functional materials in the field of catalysis owing to their large designing space, tunable electronic structure, interesting "cocktail effect", and entropy stabilization effect. Many effective strategies have been developed to design advanced catalysts for various important reactions. Herein, we firstly review effective strategies developed so far for optimizing HEM-based catalysts and the underlying mechanism revealed by both theoretical simulations and experimental aspects. In light of this overview, we subsequently present some perspectives about the development of HEM-based catalysts and provide some serviceable guidelines and/or inspiration for further studying multicomponent catalysts.

A Liquid-Liquid-Solid System to Manipulate the Cascade Reaction for Highly Selective Electrosynthesis of Aldehyde

Electrocatalytic synthesis of aldehydes from alcohols exhibits unique superiorities as a promising technology, in which cascade reactions are involved. However, the cascade reactions are severely limited by the low selectivity resulting from the peroxidation of aldehydes in a traditional liquid-solid system. Herein, we report a novel liquid-liquid-solid system to regulate the selectivity of benzyl alcohol electrooxidation. The selectivity of benzaldehyde increases 200-fold from 0.4 % to 80.4 % compared with the liquid-solid system at a high current density of 136 mA cm^-2 , which is the highest one up to date. In the tri-phase system, the benzaldehyde peroxidation is suppressed efficiently, with the conversion of benzaldehyde being decreased from 87.6 % to 3.8 %. The as-produced benzaldehyde can be in situ extracted to toluene phase and separated from the electrolyte to get purified benzaldehyde. This strategy provides an efficient way to efficiently enhance the selectivity of electrocatalytic cascade reactions.

Upgrading Organic Compounds through the Coupling of Electrooxidation with Hydrogen Evolution

The electrocatalytic splitting of water is recognized to be the most sustainable and clean technology for the production of hydrogen (H2 ). Unfortunately, the efficiency is seriously restricted by the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at the anode. In contrast to the OER, the electrooxidation of organic compounds (EOO) is more thermodynamically and kinetically favorable. Thus, the coupling of the EOO and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) has emerged as an alternative route, as it can greatly improve the catalytic efficiency for the production of H2 . Simultaneously, value-added organic compounds can be generated on the anode through electrooxidation upgrading. In this Minireview, we highlight the latest progress and milestones in coupling the EOO with the HER. Emphasis is focused on the design of the anode catalyst, understanding the reaction mechanism, and the construction of the electrolyzer. Moreover, challenges and prospects are offered relating to the future development of this emerging technology.

High-Entropy Oxide Derived from Metal-Organic Framework as a Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Efficient Urea Oxidation and Oxygen Evolution Reactions

High-entropy oxides (HEOs) offer unique features through a combination of incompatible metal cations to a single crystalline lattice. Owing to their special characteristics such as abundant cation compositions, high entropy stabilization, chemical and thermal stability, and lattice distortion effect, they have drawn ever-increasing attention for various applications. However, very few studies have been reported for catalytic application, and developing HEOs with large surface areas for efficient catalytic application is still in infancy. Herein, we design nanostructured HEO of (FeNiCoCrCu)₃O₄ using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as sacrificial templates to achieve a large surface area, high density of exposed active sites, and more oxygen vacancies. Single-crystalline phase HEOs with surface area as large as 206 m² g^-1 are produced and further applied as bifunctional electrocatalysts for the urea oxidation reaction (UOR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Benefiting from enhanced oxygen vacancies and a large surface area with abundant exposed active sites, the optimized HEO exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity toward UOR with a very low potential of 1.35 V at the current density of 10 mA cm^-2 and showed long-term stability for 36 h operation, making a significant catalytic performance over previously reported HEOs. Moreover, the HEO demonstrated an efficient catalytic performance toward OER with a low overpotential of 270 mV at 10 mA cm^-2 and low Tafel slope of 49 mV dec^-1. The excellent catalytic activity is ascribed to the starting MOF precursor and favorable high-entropy effect.

Defect Engineering of Ceria Nanocrystals for Enhanced Catalysis via a High-Entropy Oxide Strategy

Introducing transition-metal components to ceria (CeO₂) is important to tailor the surface redox properties for a broad scope of applications. The emergence of high-entropy oxides (HEOs) has brought transformative opportunities for oxygen defect engineering in ceria yet has been hindered by the difficulty in controllably introducing transition metals to the bulk lattice of ceria. Here, we report the fabrication of ceria-based nanocrystals with surface-confined atomic HEO layers for enhanced catalysis. The increased covalency of the transition-metal-oxygen bonds at the HEO-CeO₂ interface promotes the formation of surface oxygen vacancies, enabling efficient oxygen activation and replenishment for enhanced CO oxidation capabilities. Understanding the structural heterogeneity involving bulk and surface oxygen defects in nanostructured HEOs provides useful insights into rational design of atomically precise metal oxides, whose increased compositional and structural complexities give rise to expanded functionalities.

Interface Molecular Functionalization of Cu2O for Synchronous Electrocatalytic Generation of Formate

The electrocatalytic generation of valuable fuels and chemicals from carbon dioxide (CO₂) and others with the assistance of clean solar energy is a highly promising way to realize the carbon-neutral cycle, which invokes the systematic development of advanced electrocatalysts for efficient and selective redox reactions of feedstocks. Herein, we demonstrate the interface modification of cuprous oxide with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) to improve the electrocatalytic efficiency for the synchronous formate generation. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the interfacial properties can be effectively regulated by the PVP functionalization for the favorable formation of intermediates to improve the selectivity of formate generation. Importantly, the advanced electrocatalyts enable an efficient coupling of CO₂ reduction with methanol oxidation in an electrochemical cell powered with a solar cell. The work provides a predictive link between the electrocatalytic redox reactions by applying the interfacial regulation strategies of electrocatalysts.

Short-Range Diffusion Enables General Synthesis of Medium-Entropy Alloy Aerogels

Medium-entropy alloy aerogels (MEAAs) with the advantages of both multimetallic alloys and aerogels are promising new materials in catalytic applications. However, limited by the immiscible behavior of different metals, achieving single-phase MEAAs is still a grand challenge. Herein, a general strategy for preparing ultralight 3D porous MEAAs with the lowest density of 39.3 mg cm^-3 among the metal materials is reported, through combining auto-combustion and subsequent low-temperature reduction procedures. The homogenous mixing of precursors at the ionic level makes the short-range diffusion of metal atoms possible to drive the formation of single-phase MEAAs. As a proof of concept in catalysis, as-synthesized Ni₅₀ Co₁₅ Fe₃₀ Cu₅ MEAAs exhibit a high mass activity of 1.62 A mg^-1 and specific activity of 132.24 mA cm^-2 toward methanol oxidation reactions, much higher than those of the low-entropy counterparts. In situ Fourier transform infrared and NMR spectroscopies reveal that MEAAs can enable highly selective conversion of methanol to formate. Most importantly, a methanol-oxidation-assisted MEAAs-based water electrolyzer can achieve a low cell voltage of 1.476 V at 10 mA cm^-2 for making value-added formate at the anode and H₂ at the cathode, 173 mV lower than that of traditional alkaline water electrolyzers.

Phosphorus vacancy-engineered Ce-doped CoP nanosheets for the electrocatalytic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural

The electrooxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to 2,5-furanedioic acid (FDCA) has received increasing attention. To achieve satisfactory electrooxidation of HMF, the development of an efficient electrocatalyst is particularly critical. Herein, porous Ce-CoP nanosheets integrating Ce doping and P vacancies are designed through a deep eutectic solvent approach, and they allow the excellent electrocatalytic oxidation of HMF to FDCA in 1 M KOH electrolyte with 100% HMF conversion, 98% FDCA yield, and a faradaic efficiency of 96.4% at low potential.

Oxygen Vacancy-Mediated Selective C-N Coupling toward Electrocatalytic Urea Synthesis

The electrocatalytic C-N coupling for one-step urea synthesis under ambient conditions serves as the promising alternative to the traditional urea synthetic protocol. However, the hydrogenation of intermediate species hinders the efficient urea synthesis. Herein, the oxygen vacancy-enriched CeO₂ was demonstrated as the efficient electrocatalyst with the stabilization of the crucial intermediate of *NO via inserting into vacant sites, which is conducive to the subsequent C-N coupling process rather than protonation, whereas the poor selectivity of C-N coupling with protonation was observed on the vacancy-deficient catalyst. The oxygen vacancy-mediated selective C-N coupling was distinguished and validated by the in situ sum frequency generation spectroscopy. The introduction of oxygen vacancies tailors the common catalyst carrier into an efficient electrocatalyst with a high urea yield rate of 943.6 mg h^-1 g^-1, superior than that of partial noble-metal-based electrocatalysts. This work provides novel insights into the catalyst design and developments of coupling systems.

Bottom-up synthesis of 2D layered high-entropy transition metal hydroxides

Low-dimensional high-entropy materials, such as nanoparticles and two-dimensional (2D) layers, have great potential for catalysis and energy applications. However, it is still challenging to synthesize 2D layered high-entropy materials through a bottom-up soft chemistry method, due to the difficulty of mixing and assembling multiple elements in 2D layers. Here, we report a simple polyol process for the synthesis of a series of 2D layered high-entropy transition metal (Co, Cr, Fe, Mn, Ni, and Zn) hydroxides (HEHs), involving the hydrolysis and inorganic polymerization of metal-containing species in ethylene glycol media. The as-synthesized HEHs demonstrate 2D layered structures with interlayer distances ranging from 0.860 to 0.987 nm and homogeneous elemental distribution of designed equimolar stoichiometry in the layers. These 2D HEHs exhibit a low overpotential of 275 mV at 10 mA cm-2 in a 0.1 M KOH electrolyte for the oxygen evolution reaction. Superparamagnetic spinel-type high-entropy nanoparticles can also be obtained by annealing these HEHs. Our polyol approach creates opportunities for synthesizing low-dimensional high-entropy materials with promising properties and applications.

Performance of high temperature phase-stable high entropy oxide (MgCuMnCoFe)O x in catalytic wet air oxidation of chloroquine phosphate

With the continuous spread of COVID-19, the water pollution problems caused by the abuse of chloroquine phosphate (CQP) as an antiviral drug have attracted wide attention. The cubic Fm-3m spinel high entropy oxide (HEO)-(MgCuMnCoFe)O _x was prepared by coprecipitation method as the catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) catalyst to treat CQP simulated wastewater. Through electron spin resonance (ESR) analysis, HEO will stimulate the production of superoxide radical (·O₂ ^-) and hydroxyl radical (·OH) in the wet air oxidation (WAO) process, which accelerates the degradation and mineralization of CQP. Through response surface method (RSM) optimization, the optimal degradation conditions of CQP in CWAO were proposed: initial oxygen pressure of 15 bar, catalyst dosage of 1.4 g/L and temperature of 230 °C. The advantages of HEO in CWAO were analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA). The degradation mechanism of CQP in CWAO by (MgCuMnCoFe)O _x were explored. This work provides a new idea for the rapid development of HEO in the field of environmental catalysis.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10853-022-07271-z.

Theoretical Optimization of Compositions of High-Entropy Oxides for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction

High-entropy oxides are oxides consisting of five or more metals incorporated in a single lattice, and the large composition space suggests that properties of interest can be readily optimised. For applications within catalysis, the different local atomic environments result in a distribution of binding energies for the catalytic intermediates. Using the oxygen evolution reaction on the rutile (110) surface as example, here we outline a strategy for the theoretical optimization of the composition. Density functional theory calculations performed for a limited number of sites are used to fit a model that predicts the reaction energies for all possible local atomic environments. Two reaction pathways are considered; the conventional pathway on the coordinatively unsaturated sites and an alternative pathway involving transfer of protons to a bridging oxygen. An explicit model of the surface is constructed to describe the interdependency of the two pathways and identify the composition that maximizes catalytic activity.

Kinetically Accelerated Lithium Storage in High-Entropy (LiMgCoNiCuZn)O Enabled By Oxygen Vacancies

High-entropy oxides (HEOs) are gradually becoming a new focus for lithium-ion battery (LIB) anodes due to their vast element space/adjustable electrochemical properties and unique single-phase retention ability. However, the sluggish kinetics upon long cycling limits their further generalization. Here, oxygen vacancies with targeted functionality are introduced into rock salt-type (MgCoNiCuZn)O through a wet-chemical molten salt strategy to accelerate the ion/electron transmission. Both experimental results and theoretical calculations reveal the potential improvement of lithium storage, charge transfer, and diffusion kinetics from HEO surface defects, which ultimately leads to enhanced electrochemical properties. The currently raised strategy offers a modular approach and enlightening insights for defect-induced HEO-based anodes.

Boosting the electro-oxidation of 5-hydroxymethyl-furfural on a Co-CoS x heterojunction by intensified spin polarization

The conversion of biomass-derived platform molecules (e.g., 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF)) represents a sustainable route to produce value-added chemicals. Here we report the fabrication of an N-doped carbon nanotube assembled yolk-shell polyhedron with embedded Co-CoS x nanoparticles (NPs) (Y-Co-CoS x @CN) for efficient HMF electrooxidation. DFT calculations demonstrate that the formation of the heterojunction could intensify spin polarization in Co-CoS2, thus achieving effective d-p coupling between the catalyst and reactant/intermediate. As expected, Y-Co-CoS x @CN exhibits excellent HMF electro-oxidation activity at a low applied potential of 1.29 V vs. RHE at 10 mA cm-2 in 0.1 M KOH with 5 mM HMF, affording an FDCA yield of 96% and FE of 93.5%. This work not only sheds light on the catalytic nature of the heterojunction and the underlying mechanisms for the enhancement of HMF electro-oxidation activity, but would also provide a descriptor for the rational design of advanced electro-catalysts.

Eight-Component Nanoporous High-Entropy Oxides with Low Ru Contents as High-Performance Bifunctional Catalysts in Zn-Air Batteries

One major challenge in heterogeneous catalysis is to reduce the usage of noble metals while maintaining the overall catalytic stability and efficiency in various chemical environments. In this work, a series of high-entropy catalysts are synthesized by a chemical dealloying method and find the increased entropy effect and non-noble metal contents would facilitate the formation of complete oxides with low crystallinity. Importantly, an optimal eight-component high-entropy oxide (HEO, Al-Ni-Co-Ru-Mo-Cr-Fe-Ti) is identified, which exhibits further enhanced catalytic activity for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) as compared to the previously reported quinary AlNiCoRuMo and the widely-used commercial RuO₂ catalysts, and at the same time similar catalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) as the commercial Pt/C with a half-wave potential of 0.87 V. Such high-performance bi-functional catalysts, however, only require a half loading amount of Ru as compared to the quinary AlNiCoRuMo, due to the underlying Cr-Fe synergistic effects on tuning the electronic structures at active surface sites, as revealed by the first-principles density functional theory calculations of the authors. The eight-component HEO also demonstrates excellent stability under continuous electrochemical working conditions, suitable for a wide range of applications such as metal-air batteries.

High-Entropy Oxide for Highly Efficient Luminol-Dissolved Oxygen Electrochemiluminescence and Biosensing Applications

The luminol-dissolved O₂ (DO) electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensing system has recently gained growing interest; however, the drawback of the ultra-low ECL signal response greatly hinders its potential quantitative applications. In this work, for the first time, we explored the use of high entropy oxide (HEO) comprising five metal ingredients (Ni, Co, Cr, Cu, and Fe), to accelerate the reduction reaction of DO into reactive oxygen species (ROS) for boosting the ECL performance of the luminol-DO system. Benefiting from the existing abundant oxygen vacancies induced by the unique crystal structure of the HEO, DO could be efficiently converted into ROS, thus significantly boosting the performance of the corresponding ECL sensor (with an ∼240-fold signal enhancement in this study). As a proof of concept, under optimal conditions, the developed HEO-involved luminol-DO ECL sensing system was successfully applied for efficient biosensing of dopamine and alkaline phosphatase with a fine linear range from 1 pM to 10 nM and from 0.01 to 100 U/L as well as a low limit of detection of 5.2 pM and 0.008 U/L, respectively.

Entropy-Assisted High-Entropy Oxide with a Spinel Structure toward High-Temperature Infrared Radiation Materials

Developing advanced materials with a high-entropy concept is one of the hot trends in materials science. The configurational entropy of high-entropy materials can be tuned by introducing different atomic species, which can also impart a result in excellent physical and chemical properties. In this work, we synthesized a solid-solution oxide (Cu, Mn, Fe, Cr)₃O₄ by a simple and scalable solid-phase synthesis method. We extensively investigated the microstructure and chemical composition, indicating that (Cu, Mn, Fe, Cr)₃O₄ has a single-phase spinel structure. Simultaneously, we reasonably evaluated the position occupied by the elements of (Cu, Mn, Fe, Cr)₃O₄ in a spinel structure as (Cu_0.75Fe_0.25)(Fe_0.25Cr_0.375Mn_0.375)₂O₄. Here, we first evaluated the infrared radiation performance of (Cu, Mn, Fe, Cr)₃O₄. The new, high-entropy oxide (HEO) (Cu, Mn, Fe, Cr)₃O₄ powder exhibits high infrared emissivity values of 0.879 and 0.848 in the wavelengths of 0.78-2.5 and 2.5-16 μm, respectively, and has excellent thermal stability. More importantly, the infrared emissivity values of as-prepared HEO coating reach 0.955 (0.78-2.5 μm) at room temperature and 0.936 (3-16 μm) at 800 °C. This work provides a viable strategy toward the laboratory mass production of this HEO for infrared radiation materials, which shows great potential in the energy-related applications.

Improvement and regeneration of Co–B amorphous alloy nanowires for the selective hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde

Co–B amorphous alloy nanowires exhibited the improvement of catalytic hydrogenation activity and cycling life by plasma treatment.

Fabrication of an amorphous metal oxide/p-BiVO4 photocathode: understanding the role of entropy for reducing nitrate to ammonia

Entropy regulation makes an amorphous metal oxide/p-BiVO4 heterostructure a desirable catalyst for the NO3− reduction reaction in a photoelectrochemical system.

The highly efficient electrocatalytic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural on copper nanocrystalline/carbon hybrid catalysts: structure–function relations

The Cu species in Cu(NSD)/CP exhibit a high electrochemical specific surface area, which allows efficient transformation from Cu0 and Cu1+ species to Cu2+ with high catalytic capacity, resulting in excellent catalytic performance (96% yield of FDCA).

Interfacial engineering of heterostructured Fe-Ni3S2/Ni(OH)2 nanosheets with tailored d-band center for enhanced oxygen evolution catalysis

The OER catalytic activities of Fe-Ni3S2 nanosheets can be well manipulated by tailoring the d band center positions via interfacial engineering strategy.