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Direct seawater zinc‐air batteries (S‐ZABs), with their inherent properties of high energy density, intrinsic safety, and low cost, present a compelling avenue for the development of energy storage technology. However, the presence of chloride ions in seawater poses challenges to their air electrode, resulting in sluggish reaction kinetics and poor stability for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Herein, Fe atomic clusters (ACs) decorated Fe single‐metal atoms (SAs) catalyst (FeSA‐FeAC/NC) is prepared using a plasma treatment strategy. The aberration‐corrected transmission electron microscope images confirm the successful construction of Fe SAs surrounding Fe ACs, which delivers robust ORR activity with a half‐wave potential of 0.886 V in alkaline seawater electrolyte. When utilized as the cathode catalyst in assembled S‐ZABs, the battery demonstrates excellent discharge performance, achieving a peak power density of 222 mW cm−2, which is 2.3 times higher than Pt/C based S‐ZABs. Moreover, density functional theory calculations unveil that the synergy effect between the Fe ACs and SAs not only reduces the spin‐down d‐band center in the Fe SAs, but also efficiently suppresses Cl−1 adsorption on Fe SAs due to their strong Cl−1 absorption ability of the Fe ACs, thereby enhancing both the activity and stability of the catalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring non-precious oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts is essential to fuel cells and seawater metal–air batteries. Transition metal nitrides are promising ORR catalysts with high corrosion resistance but fail to render satisfactory ORR performance. Herein, we introduce a novel method for the synthesis of carbon nanosheet-supported transition metal nitrides. Using dicyandiamine (DCDA) as the nitrogen and carbon source, we prepared carbon nanosheet-supported CrN nanoparticles (CrN/CNS) via a two-step pyrolysis method. The optimal CrN/CNS material has an ORR half-wave potential (E1/2) of 0.76 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) in acidic media and 0.50 V vs. RHE in simulated seawater, which is one of the best among those reported for transition metal nitrides. Furthermore, the optimal material has remarkable ORR stability in both acidic media and simulated seawater. Its ORR E1/2 shows 27 mV decay in acidic media and 20 mV increase in simulated seawater after stability tests, outperforming a commercial Pt/C catalyst and many transition metal nitrides. More importantly, the optimal CrN/CNS material-based seawater Zn–air batteries (ZABs) exhibit good stability within 200 h constant discharging. It is found that both the proportion of the Cr–N valence state and the Cr content in surfaces played a key role in the ORR activity of CrN/CNS materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasma etching treatment is an effective strategy to improve the electrocatalytic activity, but the improvement mechanism is still unclear. In this work, a nitrogen‐doped carbon nanotube‐encased iron nanoparticles (Fe@NCNT) catalyst is synthesized as the model catalyst, followed by plasma etching treatment with different parameters. The electrocatalytic activity improvement mechanism of the plasma etching treatment is revealed by combining the physicochemical characterizations and electrochemical results. As a result, highly active metal–nitrogen species introduced by nitrogen plasma etching treatment are recognized as the main contribution to the improved electrocatalytic activity, and the defects induced by plasma etching treatment also contribute to the improvement of the electrocatalytic activity. In addition, the prepared catalyst also demonstrates superior ORR activity and stability than the commercial Pt/C catalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Binary single‐atom catalysts (BSACs) have demonstrated fascinating activities compared to single atom catalysts (SACs) for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Notably, Fe SACs is one of the most promising ORR electrocatalysts, and further revealing the synergistic effects between Fe and other 3d transition metals (M) for FeM BSACs are very important to enhance bifunctional performance. Herein, density functional theory (DFT) calculations are first adapted to demonstrate the role of various transition metals on the bifunctional activity of Fe sites, and a notable volcano relationship is established through the generally accepted adsorption free energy that ΔG*OH for ORR, and ΔG*O−ΔG*OH for OER, respectively. Further, ten of the atomically dispersed FeM anchored on nitrogen‐carbon support (FeM‐NC) are successfully synthesized with typical atomic dispersion by a facile movable type printing method. The experimental data confirms the bifunctional activity diversity of FeM‐NC between the early‐ and late‐ transition metals, agrees very well with the DFT results. More importantly, the optimal FeCu‐NC shows the expected performance with high ORR and OER activity, thereby, the assembled rechargeable zinc–air battery delivers a high power density of 231 mW cm−2, and an impressive stability that can be stably operated over 300 h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fe−N−C represents the most promising non‐precious metal catalysts (NPMCs) for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in fuel cells, but often suffers from poor stability in acid due to the dissolution of metal sites and the poor oxidation resistance of carbon substrates. In this work, silicon‐doped iron‐nitrogen‐carbon (Si/Fe−N−C) catalysts were developed by in situ silicon doping and metal–polymer coordination. It was found that Si doping could not only promote the density of Fe−Nx/C active sites but also elevated the content of graphitic carbon through catalytic graphitization. The best‐performing Si/Fe−N−C exhibited a half‐wave potential of 0.817 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode in 0.5 m H2SO4, outperforming that of undoped Fe−N−C and most of the reported Fe−N−C catalysts. It also exhibited significantly enhanced stability at elevated temperature (≥60 °C). This work provides a new way to develop non‐precious metal ORR catalysts with improved activity and stability in acidic media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, titled "Understanding the improvement mechanism of plasma etching treatment on oxygen reduction reaction catalysts," explores the use of plasma etching as a method to synthesize and enhance the performance of electrocatalysts. The study reveals that the introduction of highly active metal-nitrogen species through nitrogen plasma etching treatment is the main factor contributing to the improved electrocatalytic activity. Additionally, the defects induced by plasma etching also play a role in the high performance of the catalysts. The authors of the article are Peng Rao, Yanhui Yu, Shaolei Wang, Yu Zhou, Xiao Wu, Ke Li, Anyuan Qi, Peilin Deng, Yonggang Cheng, Jing Li, Zhengpei Miao, and Xinlong Tian. [Extracted from the article]

Abstract: The development of high‐performance oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts derived from non‐Pt group metals (non‐PGMs) is urgent for the wide applications of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In this work, a facile and cost‐efficient supramolecular route is developed for making non‐PGM ORR catalyst with atomically dispersed Fe‐Nx/C sites through pyrolyzing the metal‐organic polymer coordinative hydrogel formed between Fe3+ and α‐L‐guluronate blocks of sodium alginate (SA). High‐angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF‐STEM) and X‐ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) verify that Fe atoms achieve atomic‐level dispersion on the obtained SA‐Fe‐N nanosheets and a possible fourfold coordination with N atoms. The best‐performing SA‐Fe‐N catalyst exhibits excellent ORR activity with half‐wave potential (E1/2) of 0.812 and 0.910 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) in 0.5 m H2SO4 and 0.1 m KOH, respectively, along with respectable durability. Such performance surpasses that of most reported non‐PGM ORR catalysts. Density functional theory calculations suggest that the relieved passivation effect of OH* on Fe‐N4/C structure leads to its superior ORR activity to Pt/C in alkaline solution. The work demonstrates a novel strategy for developing high‐performance non‐PGM ORR electrocatalysts with atomically dispersed and stable M‐Nx coordination sites in both acidic and alkaline media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dual‐single‐atom catalysts (DSACs) are the next paradigm shift in single‐atom catalysts because of the enhanced performance brought about by the synergistic effects between adjacent bimetallic pairs. However, there are few methods for synthesizing DSACs with precise bimetallic structures. Herein, a pre‐coordination strategy is proposed to precisely synthesize a library of DSACs. This strategy ensures the selective and effective coordination of two metals via phthalocyanines with specific coordination sites, such as −F− and −OH−. Subsequently, in situ confinement inhibits the migration of metal pairs during high‐temperature pyrolysis, and obtains the DSACs with precisely constructed metal pairs. Despite changing synthetic parameters, including transition metal centers, metal pairs, and spatial geometry, the products exhibit similar atomic metal pairs dispersion properties, demonstrating the universality of the strategy. The pre‐coordination strategy synthesized DSACs shows significant CO2 reduction reaction performance in both flow‐cell and practical rechargeable Zn‐CO2 batteries. This work not only provides new insights into the precise synthesis of DSACs, but also offers guidelines for the accelerated discovery of efficient catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential application prospects of urea-assisted water electrolysis toward hydrogen production in renewable energy infrastructure can effectively alleviate energy shortages and environmental pollution caused by rich urea wastewater. It is of prominent significance that adjusting the CO 2 desorption of nickel-based electrocatalysts can overcome the slow reaction kinetics for urea oxidation reaction (UOR) to achieve exceptional catalytic activity. In this work, cobalt (Co) metal doping is employed to boost the UOR performance of nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes encapsulating nickel nanoparticle electrocatalysts (Ni@N-CNT). The influence of diverse Co doping concentrations on the performance of UOR and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalytic activities associated with stability are systematically investigated. The Co dopant can effectively promote the dynamical conversion of Ni to Ni 3+ species; as a result, the UOR catalytic activity is improved by 1.8-fold at 1.6 V vs RHE. The DFT calculation results show that the CoNi bimetallic structure possesses a comparably lower binding energy for CO 2 adsorption accelerating the rate-limiting step. Meanwhile, the Co dopant also boosts the HER performance, achieving a 57 mV reduction in overpotential at 100 mA cm -2 due to the creation of more active sites. In addition, the assembled urea-assisted water electrolysis attains 10 mA cm -2 at merely 1.51 V as well as excellent stability.

Plasma etching treatment is an effective strategy to improve the electrocatalytic activity, but the improvement mechanism is still unclear. In this work, a nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube-encased iron nanoparticles (Fe@NCNT) catalyst is synthesized as the model catalyst, followed by plasma etching treatment with different parameters. The electrocatalytic activity improvement mechanism of the plasma etching treatment is revealed by combining the physicochemical characterizations and electrochemical results. As a result, highly active metal-nitrogen species introduced by nitrogen plasma etching treatment are recognized as the main contribution to the improved electrocatalytic activity, and the defects induced by plasma etching treatment also contribute to the improvement of the electrocatalytic activity. In addition, the prepared catalyst also demonstrates superior ORR activity and stability than the commercial Pt/C catalyst., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (© 2023 The Authors. Exploration published by Henan University and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Fe-N-C represents the most promising non-precious metal catalysts (NPMCs) for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in fuel cells, but often suffers from poor stability in acid due to the dissolution of metal sites and the poor oxidation resistance of carbon substrates. In this work, silicon-doped iron-nitrogen-carbon (Si/Fe-N-C) catalysts were developed by in situ silicon doping and metal-polymer coordination. It was found that Si doping could not only promote the density of Fe-N x /C active sites but also elevated the content of graphitic carbon through catalytic graphitization. The best-performing Si/Fe-N-C exhibited a half-wave potential of 0.817 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode in 0.5 m H 2 SO 4 , outperforming that of undoped Fe-N-C and most of the reported Fe-N-C catalysts. It also exhibited significantly enhanced stability at elevated temperature (≥60 °C). This work provides a new way to develop non-precious metal ORR catalysts with improved activity and stability in acidic media., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Excessive anthropogenic CO 2 emission has caused a series of ecological and environmental issues, which threatens mankind's sustainable development. Mimicking the natural photosynthesis process (i.e., artificial photosynthesis) by electrochemically converting CO 2 into value-added products is a promising way to alleviate CO 2 emission and relieve the dependence on fossil fuels. Recently, Sn-based catalysts have attracted increasing research attentions due to the merits of low price, abundance, non-toxicity, and environmental benignancy. In this review, the paradigm of nanostructure engineering for efficient electrochemical CO 2 reduction (ECO 2 R) on Sn-based catalysts is systematically summarized. First, the nanostructure engineering of size, composition, atomic structure, morphology, defect, surficial modification, catalyst/substrate interface, and single-atom structure, are systematically discussed. The influence of nanostructure engineering on the electronic structure and adsorption property of intermediates, as well as the performance of Sn-based catalysts for ECO 2 R are highlighted. Second, the potential chemical state changes and the role of surface hydroxides on Sn-based catalysts during ECO 2 R are introduced. Third, the challenges and opportunities of Sn-based catalysts for ECO 2 R are proposed. It is expected that this review inspires the further development of highly efficient Sn-based catalysts, meanwhile offer protocols for the investigation of Sn-based catalysts., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

The large-scale commercialization of proton-exchange-membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) is extremely limited by their costly platinum-group metals (PGMs) catalysts, which are used for catalyzing the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) kinetics at the cathode. Among the reported PGM-free catalysts so far, metal-nitrogen-carbon (M-N x /C) catalysts hold a great potential to replace PGMs catalysts for the ORR due to their excellent initial activity and low cost. However, despite tremendous progress in this field in the past decade, their further applications are restricted by fast degradation under practical conditions. Herein, the theoretical fundamentals of the stability of the M-N x /C catalysts are first introduced in terms of thermodynamics and kinetics. The primary degradation mechanisms of M-N x /C catalysts and the corresponding mitigating strategies are discussed in detail. Finally, the current challenges and the prospects for designing highly stable M-N x /C catalysts are outlined., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

The sluggish kinetics of lithium polysulfides (LiPS) transformation is recognized as the main obstacle against the practical applications of the lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery. Inspired by molybdoenzymes in biological catalysis with stable Mo-S bonds, porous Mo-N-C nanosheets with atomically dispersed Mo-N 2 /C sites are developed as a S cathode to boost the LiPS adsorption and conversion for Li-S batteries. Thanks to its high intrinsic activity and the Mo-N 2 /C coordination structure, the rate capability and cycling stability of S/Mo-N-C are greatly improved compared with S/N-C due to the accelerated kinetics and suppressed shuttle effect. The S/Mo-N-C delivers a high reversible capacity of 743.9 mAh g -1 at 5 C rate and an extremely low capacity decay rate of 0.018% per cycle after 550 cycles at 2 C rate, outperforming most of the reported cathode materials. Density functional theory calculations suggest that the Mo-N 2 /C sites can bifunctionally lower the activation energy for Li 2 S 4 to Li 2 S conversion and the decomposition barrier of Li 2 S, accounting for its inherently high activity toward LiPS transformation.

In this work, monodisperse core/shell Cu/In 2 O 3 nanoparticles (NPs) were developed to boost efficient and tunable syngas formation via electrochemical CO 2 reduction for the first time. The efficiency and composition of syngas production on the developed carbon-supported Cu/In 2 O 3 catalysts are highly dependent on the In 2 O 3 shell thickness (0.4-1.5 nm). As a result, a wide H 2 /CO ratio (4/1 to 0.4/1) was achieved on the Cu/In 2 O 3 catalysts by controlling the shell thickness and the applied potential (from -0.4 to -0.9 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode), with Faraday efficiency of syngas formation larger than 90%. Specifically, the best-performing Cu/In 2 O 3 catalyst demonstrates remarkably large current densities under low overpotentials (4.6 and 12.7 mA/cm 2 at -0.6 and -0.9 V, respectively), which are competitive with most of the reported systems for syngas formation. Mechanistic discussion implicates that the synergistic effect between lattice compression and Cu doping in the In 2 O 3 shell may enhance the binding of *COOH on the Cu/In 2 O 3 NP surface, leading to the enhanced CO generation relative to Cu and In 2 O 3 catalysts. This report demonstrates a new strategy to realize efficient and tunable syngas formation via rationally designed core/shell catalyst configuration.