Coupling Amorphization and Compositional Optimization of Ternary Metal Phosphides toward High-Performance Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Production
Bing Deng, Zhenyu Wu, Erkang Feng, Lu Ma, Zhe Wang, Jinhang Chen, Lucas Eddy, Alexander Lathem, T. Wang, Weiyin Chen, Yi Cheng, Shichen Xu, Qiming Liu, Boris I. Yakobson, Haotian Wang, Yufeng Zhao, James M. Tour
Abstract
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 4 Ni 4 P 1 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 10 ∼ 14 mV, Tafel slope ∼ 18 mV dec –1, 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.