Highly Exposed Ultra‐Small High‐Entropy Sulfides with d‐p Orbital Hybridization for Efficient Oxygen Evolution
Precise regulation of electronic structure and nanoscale geometry represents a transformative strategy for breaking the activity-stability trade-off in oxygen evolution electrocatalysts. Here, highly exposed ultra-small high-entropy sulfides (HES, 5.2 nm) confined in porous carbon nanofibers are designed. This structure involves a dual-engineering synergistic effect combining d-p orbital hybridization and nanoconfinement. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal hybridization between transition metal 3d orbitals and sulfur 3p orbitals. This orbital interaction induces a d-band center shift toward the Fermi level and facilitates interfacial charge redistribution, endowing HES with superior electron-donating capability to accelerate proton-coupled electron transfer kinetics. Such electronic modulation significantly optimizes the adsorption of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) intermediates (<sup>*</sup>OH, <sup>*</sup>O, <sup>*</sup>OOH). Experimentally, the HES demonstrates exceptional OER performance, exhibiting a low overpotential of 200 mV at 10 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> and remarkable durability with negligible current decay during 300 h operation across current densities ranging from 10 to 100 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>. This work establishes a dual optimization strategy leveraging orbital hybridization engineering and size engineering for advanced electrocatalyst design, providing a new design approach in energy conversion technologies.
Authors
- Hengpan Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7087-0536)
- Qing‐Miao Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0810-8847)
- Huizhu Cai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-6431-1199)
- Shijie He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8313-0449)
- Fengting Luo
- Chuanxin He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2254-360X)
- Xue Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2204-2346)
- Qian Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4624-9851)
Institutions
- Shenzhen University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Materials
- Published
- 2025-06-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202508610
- Citations
- 27
- Primary Topic
- Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 9.81
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China