Coupling Amorphization and Compositional Optimization of Ternary Metal Phosphides toward High-Performance Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Production
Amorphous materials, with abundant active sites and unique electronic configurations, have the potential to outperform their crystalline counterparts in high-performance catalysis for clean energy. However, their synthesis and compositional optimization remain underexplored due to the strict conditions required for their formation. Here, we report the synthesis of ternary platinum-nickel-phosphorus (PtNiP) amorphous nanoparticles (ANPs) within milliseconds by flash Joule heating, which features ultrafast cooling that enables the vitrification of metal precursors. Through compositional optimization, the Gibbs free energy of hydrogen adsorption for Pt<sub>4</sub>Ni<sub>4</sub>P<sub>1</sub> ANPs is optimized at 0.02 eV, an almost ideal value, even surpassing that of the benchmark metallic platinum catalyst. As a result, the PtNiP ANPs exhibited superior activity in electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution in acid electrolyte (η<sub>10</sub> ∼ 14 mV, Tafel slope ∼ 18 mV dec<sup>-1</sup>, and mass activity 5× higher than state-of-the-art Pt/C). Life-cycle assessment and technoeconomic analysis suggest that, compared to existing processes, our approach enables notable reductions in greenhouse gas emission, energy consumption, and production cost for practical electrolyzer catalyst manufacturing.
Authors
- Boris I. Yakobson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8369-3567)
- Bing Deng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0530-8410)
- Lu Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9646-0738)
- Alexander Lathem (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1625-0031)
- Qiming Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5839-5453)
- Shichen Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2818-3011)
- Weiyin Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6427-4129)
- Yufeng Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7644-5407)
- James M. Tour (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8479-9328)
- Jinhang Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6150-5104)
- Erkang Feng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6770-1253)
- Lucas Eddy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8189-0081)
- Yi Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5865-0685)
- Zhenyu Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9198-003X)
- Haotian Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3552-8978)
- Zhe Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9232-3699)
- T. Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0457-3135)
Institutions
- Corban University (US)
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (US)
- Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (US)
- UbonRatchathani Rice Research Center (TH)
- Tân Tạo University (VN)
- National Synchrotron Light Source II
- Rice University (US)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of the American Chemical Society
- Published
- 2025-05-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c00071
- Citations
- 19
- Primary Topic
- Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 6.91
Funders
- Welch Foundation
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- National Key Research and Development Program of China
- Engineer Research and Development Center
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research