Non-equilibrium reducing flame aerosol process to create supported high-entropy alloy nanoparticles
High-entropy alloy (HEA) nanomaterials provide opportunities and property combinations for energy and electronic applications, but their practical synthesis faces challenges of elemental immiscibility, metal reducibility, and particle aggregation during their synthesis. Herein, we report a broadly applicable non-equilibrium, scalable, and in-situ reducing flame aerosol process for synthesis of supported HEA nanoparticles. This versatile process can directly load a high concentration of 2 ~ 4 nm HEA nanoparticles on various 1- to 3-dimensional supports. Notably, simultaneous formation of HEA nanoparticles and a mesoporous silica support was successfully realized in a single step. Exploration of this process demonstrates the role of kinetics and entropy on decreasing alloy particle size and altering the reducibility of elements. We propose an entropy-induced reduction mechanism to incorporate oxidizable elements into HEAs, which extends the compositional space of HEA nanoparticles. As a representative catalytic application, we present a RuPdOsIrPt/graphene electrocatalyst with high activity and stability for hydrogen oxidation reaction. Our findings open horizons for high-performance HEA design and applications in diverse fields such as catalysis, electrochemistry, and sensing.
Authors
- Zhengxi Xuan
- Jeffrey J. Urban (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4909-2869)
- Mark T. Swihart (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9652-687X)
- Jonas L. Kaufman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0814-9462)
- ShinYoung Kang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9035-8169)
- Chaochao Dun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3215-6478)
- Chengyu Song (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2419-8675)
- Dominik Wierzbicki
- Kaiwen Chen
- Kang-Lan Tung (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3853-3963)
- Haolan Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9020-1036)
- Wei Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-6691-0950)
- Mohd Ashhar Khan
- Gang Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0885-6172)
- Jiashun Liang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4328-1650)
- Qike Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-8060-2935)
- Shuo Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1182-6572)
Institutions
- Buffalo State University (US)
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (US)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (US)
- Westlake University (CN)
- University at Buffalo, State University of New York (US)
- AGH University of Krakow (PL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2026-05-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72958-9
- Primary Topic
- High Entropy Alloys Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- State University of New York
- Office of Science
- Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
- University at Buffalo
- National Energy Technology Laboratory
- Division of Materials Research
- Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems
- Basic Energy Sciences
- Building Technologies Office
- Office of Energy Efficiency
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- Brookhaven National Laboratory
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory