Premium
Ligand‐Exchange‐Induced Amorphization of Pd Nanomaterials for Highly Efficient Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Reaction
Author(s) -
Cheng Hongfei,
Yang Nailiang,
Liu Guigao,
Ge Yiyao,
Huang Jingtao,
Yun Qinbai,
Du Yonghua,
Sun ChengJun,
Chen Bo,
Liu Jiawei,
Zhang Hua
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201902964
Subject(s) - nanomaterials , materials science , electrocatalyst , amorphous solid , noble metal , nanotechnology , ligand (biochemistry) , nanoparticle , transition metal , amorphous metal , metal , catalysis , chemical engineering , electrochemistry , chemistry , crystallography , electrode , metallurgy , organic chemistry , biochemistry , receptor , engineering
Various kinds of amorphous materials, such as transition metal dichalcogenides, metal oxides, and metal phosphates, have demonstrated superior electrocatalytic performance compared with their crystalline counterparts. Compared to other materials for electrocatalysis, noble metals exhibit intrinsically high activity and excellent durability. However, it is still very challenging to prepare amorphous noble‐metal nanomaterials due to the strong interatomic metallic bonding. Herein, the discovery of a unique thiol molecule is reported, namely bismuthiol I, which can induce the transformation of Pd nanomaterials from face‐centered‐cubic (fcc) phase into amorphous phase without destroying their integrity. This ligand‐induced amorphization is realized by post‐synthetic ligand exchange under ambient conditions, and is applicable to fcc Pd nanomaterials with different capping ligands. Importantly, the obtained amorphous Pd nanoparticles exhibit remarkably enhanced activity and excellent stability toward electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution in acidic solution. This work provides a facile and effective method for preparing amorphous Pd nanomaterials, and demonstrates their promising electrocatalytic application.