Cation‐Site Disordered Cu <sub>3</sub> PdN Nanoparticles for Hydrogen Evolution Electrocatalysis
Transition metal nitrides (TMNs) are emerging as a promising class of materials for application in optoelectronics as well as energy conversion and storage, but they remain rather unexplored, mainly due to a lack of mechanistic understanding of their synthetic pathways. Here, a one-pot synthesis is demonstrated, which yields 3 nm phase-pure Cu<sub>3</sub>PdN nanoparticles after the reaction of Cu methoxide and Pd acetylacetonate in benzylamine for 5 min at 140 °C. The structure of the initial complexes and their conversion to Cu<sub>3</sub>PdN are revealed by in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements and elucidate nucleation and growth of the nitride nanocrystals by in situ total X-ray scattering measurements. Interestingly, extended X-ray absorption fine structure double-edge refinement reveals the presence of short-range cation-site disorder in the anti-perovskite structure of Cu<sub>3</sub>PdN, which has not been observed before in the Cu<sub>3</sub>PdN system. Additionally, the synthesized Cu<sub>3</sub>PdN nanoparticles are tested for the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction, revealing an overpotential as low as η<sub>10</sub> = 212 ± 11 mV measured at 10 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>.
Authors
- Olivier Mathon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5487-0226)
- Andrea Koeppen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5832-6105)
- Lars Klemeyer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1103-8103)
- Jagadesh Kopula Kesavan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0591-2493)
- Melike Gumus Akcaalan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2675-5893)
- Sani Y. Harouna‐Mayer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7813-8814)
- Dorota Koziej (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9064-2642)
- Francesco Caddeo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2909-5379)
- Ann‐Christin Dippel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1735-9215)
- Chia‐Shuo Hsu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7767-8413)
- Heshmat Noei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1294-3527)
- Lian Belgardt
- Lizzi Kipping
- Tjark Raphael Leon Groene
Institutions
- Universität Hamburg (DE)
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY (DE)
- European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (FR)
- Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (DE)
- Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging
Publication Details
- Journal
- Small
- Published
- 2025-06-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202506838
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Copper-based nanomaterials and applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.04
Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
- Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron
- HORIZON EUROPE European Research Council