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Dohnal F, Lazar P. Improving the Catalytic Performance of the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction of α-MoB 2 via Rational Doping by Transition Metal Elements. Chemphyschem 2023; 24:e202200824. [PMID: 36646517 DOI: 10.1002/cphc.202200824] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2022] [Revised: 12/28/2022] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
Abundant transition metal borides are emerging as promising electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts which have a potential to substitute noble metals. Those containing graphene-like (flat) boron layers, such as α-MoB2, are particularly promising and their performance can be further enhanced via doping by the second metal. In order to understand intrinsic effect of doping and rationalize selection of dopants, we employ density functional theory (DFT) calculations to study substitutional doping of α-MoB2 by transition metals as a route towards systematic improvement of intrinsic catalytic activity towards HER. We calculated thermodynamic stability of various transition metal elements to select metals which form a stable ternary phase with α-MoB2 . We inspected surface stability of dopants and assessed catalytic activity of doped surface through hydrogen binding free energy at various hydrogen coverages. We calculated the reaction barriers and pathways for the Tafel step of HER for the most promising dopants. The results highlight iron as the best dopant, simultaneously lowering the reaction barrier of the Tafel step while having suitable thermodynamic stability within MoB2 lattice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Filip Dohnal
- Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37, Brno, Czechia
| | - Petr Lazar
- Regional Centre of Advanced Technologies and Materials, Czech Advanced Technology and Research Institute (CATRIN), Palacký University Olomouc, Šlechtitelů 27, 779 00, Olomouc, Czechia
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Li S, Gunda H, Ray KG, Wong CS, Xiao P, Friddle RW, Liu YS, Kang S, Dun C, Sugar JD, Kolasinski RD, Wan LF, Baker AA, Lee JRI, Urban JJ, Jasuja K, Allendorf MD, Stavila V, Wood BC. Spontaneous dynamical disordering of borophenes in MgB 2 and related metal borides. Nat Commun 2021; 12:6268. [PMID: 34725350 PMCID: PMC8560812 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26512-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2021] [Accepted: 09/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Layered boron compounds have attracted significant interest in applications from energy storage to electronic materials to device applications, owing in part to a diversity of surface properties tied to specific arrangements of boron atoms. Here we report the energy landscape for surface atomic configurations of MgB2 by combining first-principles calculations, global optimization, material synthesis and characterization. We demonstrate that contrary to previous assumptions, multiple disordered reconstructions are thermodynamically preferred and kinetically accessible within exposed B surfaces in MgB2 and other layered metal diborides at low boron chemical potentials. Such a dynamic environment and intrinsic disordering of the B surface atoms present new opportunities to realize a diverse set of 2D boron structures. We validated the predicted surface disorder by characterizing exfoliated boron-terminated MgB2 nanosheets. We further discuss application-relevant implications, with a particular view towards understanding the impact of boron surface heterogeneity on hydrogen storage performance. Layered boron compounds attract enormous interest in applications. This work reports first-principles calculations coupled with global optimization to show that the outer boron surface in MgB2 nanosheets undergo disordering and clustering, which is experimentally confirmed in synthesized MgB2 nanosheets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sichi Li
- Materials Science Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, 94550, USA.
| | - Harini Gunda
- Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA, 94551, USA.,Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, 382355, India
| | - Keith G Ray
- Materials Science Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, 94550, USA
| | | | - Penghao Xiao
- Materials Science Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, 94550, USA
| | | | - Yi-Sheng Liu
- Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - ShinYoung Kang
- Materials Science Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, 94550, USA
| | - Chaochao Dun
- Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | | | | | - Liwen F Wan
- Materials Science Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, 94550, USA
| | - Alexander A Baker
- Materials Science Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, 94550, USA
| | - Jonathan R I Lee
- Materials Science Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, 94550, USA
| | - Jeffrey J Urban
- Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Kabeer Jasuja
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, 382355, India
| | | | | | - Brandon C Wood
- Materials Science Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, 94550, USA.
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