Designing and Understanding the Outstanding Tri-Iodide Reduction of N-Coordinated Magnetic Metal Modified Defect-Rich Carbon Dodecahedrons in Photovoltaics

Iron-doping and facet engineering of NiSe octahedron for synergistically enhanced triiodide reduction activity in photovoltaics

Reasonable design of cost-effective counter electrode (CE) catalysts for triiodide (I3-) reduction reaction (IRR) by simultaneously combining heteroatom doping and facet engineering is highly desired in iodine-based dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), but really challenging. Herein, the density function theory (DFT) calculations were first conducted to demonstrate that the Fe-doped NiSe (111) showed an appropriate adsorption energy for I3-, increased number of metal active sites, reinforced charge-transfer ability, and strong interaction between 3d states of metal sites and 5p state of I1 atoms in I3-, compared to NiSe (111). Based on this finding, the well-defined Fe-NiSe octahedron with exposed (111) plane (marked as Fe-NiSe (111)) and NiSe octahedron with the same exposed plane (named as NiSe (111)) are controllably synthesized. When the as-prepared Fe-NiSe (111) and NiSe (111) worked as CE catalysts, Fe-NiSe (111) exhibits improved electrochemical performance with higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) than NiSe (111), providing new opportunity to replace precious Pt for DSSCs.

Eggshell-Like Carbon Microspheres with Curvature Scheme: Distorted Energy Band and Atomic Charge Waves-Driven High Performance for Zinc-Air Battery

A metal-free nanocarbon with an eggshell structure is synthesized from chitosan (CS) and natural spherical graphite (NSG) as a cathode electrocatalyst for clean zinc-air batteries and fuel cells. It is developed using CS-derived carbons as an eggshell, covering NSG cores. The synthesis involves the in situ growth of CS on NSG, followed by ammonia-assisted pyrolysis for carbonization. The resulting catalyst displays a curved structure and completely coated NSG, showing superior oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance. In 1 M NaOH, the ORR half-wave potential reached 0.93 V, surpassing the commercial Pt/C catalyst by 50 mV. Furthermore, a zinc-air battery featuring the catalyst achieves a peak power density of 167 mW cm-2 with excellent stability, outperforming the Pt/C. The improved performance of the eggshell carbons can be attributed to the distorted energy band of the active sites in the form of N-C moieties. More importantly, the curved thin eggshells induce built-in electric fields that can promote electron redistribution to generate atomic charge waves around the N-C moieties on the carbon shells. As a result, the high positively charged and stable C+ sites adjacent to N atoms optimize the adsorption strength of oxygen molecules, thereby facilitating performance.

Controlled synthesis of ACo2O4 (A = Fe, Cu, Zn, Ni) as an environmentally friendly electrocatalyst for urea electrolysis

Water electrolysis is relatively an environmentally friendly hydrogen production technology, but due to the slow transfer of four electrons in the anodic oxidation reaction, it needs a theoretical voltage of up to 1.23 V. Therefore, in this experiment, a series of transition metal oxides, ACo₂O₄ (A = Fe, Cu, Zn, Ni), was synthesized on Ni foam current collectors by a hydrothermal and calcination method, and the material was applied in urea electrolysis to produce hydrogen. What is noteworthy is that the CuCo₂O₄ electrode has a unique flower-like nanoneedle structure, and has a larger electrochemical active area, more reactive active sites, and a faster charge transfer rate. In 1.0 M KOH and 0.5 M urea solution, CuCo₂O₄ provides a potential of only 1.268 V at a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 during the urea oxidation reaction (UOR), while in 1.0 M KOH solution, with the same current density, the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is required to provide a potential of 1.53 V, indicating that the UOR can effectively replace the OER. Density functional theory calculations show that the CuCo₂O₄ material exhibits Gibbs free energy of the hydrogen closest to zero, thus promoting the electrochemistry performance of the electrode. In a cell composed of CuCo₂O₄//CuCo₂O₄, the current density of 10 mA cm^-2 can be achieved by providing a potential of only 1.509 V. This work offers a novel scheme for reducing energy consumption of the OER and improving catalytic performance of the UOR.

Niobium- and cobalt-modified dual-source-derived porous carbon with a honeycomb-like stable structure for supercapacitor and hydrogen evolution reaction

Designing porous carbon materials with tailored architecture and appropriate compositions is essential for supercapacitor (SC) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, Nb/Co-modified dual-source porous carbon (Nb/Co-DSPC) with a honeycomb structure was obtained by introducing a secondary carbon source (Co/Zn-ZIF) and transition metal Nb into activated Typha carbon (ATC). The addition of a secondary carbon source and Nb resulted in superior specific surface area (1272.38 m²/g), excellent hydrophilicity (34.73°) and abundant bimetallic active sites (Nb/Co-N_x) in Nb/Co-DSPC, providing excellent charge storage capacity and electrocatalytic activity. The Nb/Co-DSPC electrode displayed an outstanding capacitance of 337 F/g at 0.5 A/g and showed excellent stability after 15,000 charge-discharge cycles. In addition, Nb/Co-DSPC shows an overpotential of 114 mV at 10 mA cm^-2, better than those of Co-DSPC (139 mV) and ATC (162 mV) alone. This study offers a reliable strategy for advanced multifunctional porous carbon electrode materials preparations.

Fly ash boosted electrocatalytic properties of PEDOT:PSS counter electrodes for the triiodide reduction in dye-sensitized solar cells

Fly ash solid waste from a power plant was applied in a solar cell application for the first time. A doctor blade was used to coat FTO-glass with a composite film of mixed fly ash and PEDOT:PSS (FP). XRD, FTIR, SEM, EDX, and BET analyses were used to elucidate the crystal structure, morphology, and functional groups of fly ash in the current research. A significantly high efficiency solar cell was fabricated utilizing fly ash. CV, Tafel, and EIS analyses indicated a decrease in charge transfer resistance and an increased catalytic activity in the counter electrodes. The performance of DSSCs made from FP counter electrodes varied depending on the percentage of fly ash particles present. Fly ash mixed with PEDOT:PSS in a concentration ratio of 2:5 g/mL showed a high efficiency of 4.23%, which is comparable to Pt DSSC's (4.84%). Moreover, FP-2:5 presented a more highly efficient electrode than counter electrodes made from PEDOT:PSS mixed with MoO (3.08%) and CoO (3.65%). This suitability of this low-cost CE material for use in DSSCs has been established.

In-Situ Grafting of Single-Atomic Titanium-Nitrogen Moiety onto Carbon Nanostructures for Efficient Photovoltaic Devices

Early transition metals offer promising orthogonal reactivity to catalytic processes promoted by late transition metals. Nevertheless, exploiting variable single-atomic configurations as reactive centers is hitherto not well documented owing to their oxophilic nature. Herein we report an in-situ grafting strategy that employs nitrogenated holey carbon nitrides as a scaffold and invokes the reasonably good match of temperature-dependent pyrolysis to stabilize an atomic titanium-nitrogen (Ti₁N₂OH) moiety onto the hierarchical porous carbon support (Ti₁/NC-SAC). The Ti₁/NC-SAC as the cathode in dye-sensitized solar cells assembly exhibited superior electrocatalytic activity toward the triiodine reduction reaction, comparable to the conventional Pt cathode. DFT studies theoretically identified that the intrinsic robust triiodine reduction activity is essentially governed by the unique edge-hosted Ti sites, from both aspects, near-optimal adsorption of I intermediate and electron-donating ability. This work sheds light on the rational design of Ti-based SACs and their applications in photovoltaic fields.

Enhancing CO2 electroreduction to CH4 over Cu nanoparticles supported on N-doped carbon

The electroreduction of CO2 to CH4 has attracted extensive attention. However, it is still a challenge to achieve high current density and faradaic efficiency (FE) for producing CH4 because the reaction involves eight electrons and four protons. In this work, we designed Cu nanoparticles supported on N-doped carbon (Cu-np/NC). It was found that the catalyst exhibited outstanding performance for the electroreduction of CO2 to CH4. The FE toward CH4 could be as high as 73.4% with a high current density of 320 mA cm-2. In addition, the mass activity could reach up to 6.4 A mgCu -1. Both experimental and theoretical calculations illustrated that the pyrrolic N in NC could accelerate the hydrogenation of *CO to the *CHO intermediate, resulting in high current density and excellent selectivity for CH4. This work conducted the first exploration of the effect of N-doped species in composites on the electrocatalytic performance of CO2 reduction.

Defect engineering tuning electron structure of biphasic tungsten-based chalcogenide heterostructure improves its catalytic activity for hydrogen evolution and triiodide reduction

The design and exploration of high-efficiency and low-cost electrode catalysts are of great significance to the development of novel energy conversion technologies. In this work, metal and nonmetal heteroatoms co-doped biphasic tungsten-based chalcogenide heterostructured catalyst (Co-WS₂/P-WO_2.9) with rich defects is successfully synthesized by a vulcanization technique. The electrocatalytic performance of WS₂/WO₃ in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and triiodide reduction reaction is significantly enhanced by modifying and optimizing its electronic structure through a defect engineering strategy. As an electrocatalyst for HER, the optimized Co-WS₂/P-WO_2.9 exhibits a low overpotential at 10 mA cm^-2 of 146 and 120 mV with small Tafel slopes of 86 and 74 mV dec^-1 in alkaline and acidic electrolyte, respectively. In addition, a Co-WS₂/P-WO_2.9 assembled solar cell yields a short circuit current density of 15.85 mA cm^-2, an open-circuit voltage of 0.74 V, a fill factor of 0.66, and a competitive power conversion efficiency (7.83%), which is comparable or higher than conventional Pt-based solar cell (16.02 mA cm^-2, 0.70 V, 0.63, 7.14%). The formation of a heterostructure in Co-WS₂/P-WO_2.9 leads to the presence of a built-in electric field in the interfacial region between Co-WS₂ and P-WO_2.9, which leads to an increased open-circuit voltage from 0.70 V for Pt to 0.74 V for Co-WS₂/P-WO_2.9. This work can provide a technical support for developing high-performance heterostructured catalysts, which open up a way for improving catalytic performance of heterostructured catalysts in the field of electrocatalysis.

Structurally optimized intrinsic defect carbon driven polysulfide reduction reaction for quantum dot sensitized solar cells

This work uses double reagents (H3BO3 and H3PO3) to adjust the intrinsic defects and surface groups of carbon to balance conductivity and active sites, which effectively improves the polysulfide reduction activity of the counter electrode for QDSSCs.