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Bellato F, Ferri M, Annamalai A, Prato M, Leoncino L, Brescia R, De Trizio L, Manna L. Colloidal Synthesis of Nickel Arsenide Nanocrystals for Electrochemical Water Splitting. ACS Appl Energy Mater 2023; 6:151-159. [PMID: 36644113 PMCID: PMC9832430 DOI: 10.1021/acsaem.2c02698] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2022] [Accepted: 12/15/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
We report a detailed study on the first colloidal synthesis of NiAs nanocrystals. By optimizing the synthesis parameters, we were able to obtain trioctylphosphine-capped NiAs nanoplatelets with an average diameter of ∼10 nm and a thickness of ca. 4 nm. We then studied the performance of such NiAs nanocrystals as electrocatalysts for electrochemical water splitting reactions, namely, acidic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and alkaline oxygen evolution reaction (OER). These nanocrystals were found to be the most HER active ones among the transition metal arsenides reported to date despite exhibiting less than 40 h of stability under benchmark operative conditions (i.e., -10 mA cmgeo -2). When tested as alkaline OER electrocatalysts, our NiAs nanocrystals behaved as a pre-catalyst and transformed superficially into an active Ni-oxy/hydroxide. As a result, NiAs nanocrystals featured an OER activity higher than that of benchmark Ni0 nanocrystals. Noticeably, the OER performance, in terms of , was retained for up to 60 h of continuous operation. The present study highlights how transition metal arsenides, whose structural features could be successfully controlled through a proper tuning of the synthetic parameters, might represent an emerging class of materials for electrocatalytic applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fulvio Bellato
- Istituto
Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Via Morego 30, Genova16163, Italy
- Università
degli studi di Genova (UniGe), Via Dodecaneso 31, Genova16146, Italy
| | - Michele Ferri
- Istituto
Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Via Morego 30, Genova16163, Italy
| | - Abinaya Annamalai
- Istituto
Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Via Morego 30, Genova16163, Italy
- Università
degli studi di Genova (UniGe), Via Dodecaneso 31, Genova16146, Italy
| | - Mirko Prato
- Istituto
Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Via Morego 30, Genova16163, Italy
| | - Luca Leoncino
- Istituto
Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Via Morego 30, Genova16163, Italy
| | - Rosaria Brescia
- Istituto
Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Via Morego 30, Genova16163, Italy
| | - Luca De Trizio
- Istituto
Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Via Morego 30, Genova16163, Italy
| | - Liberato Manna
- Istituto
Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Via Morego 30, Genova16163, Italy
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Zagorac J, Zagorac D, Babić B, Prikhna T, Matović B. Effect of aluminum addition on the structure and electronic properties of boron nitride. J SOLID STATE CHEM 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jssc.2022.123153] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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Škundrić T, Matović B, Zarubica A, Zagorac J, Tatarko P, Zagorac D. Structure Prediction and Mechanical Properties of Silicon Hexaboride on Ab Initio Level. Materials (Basel) 2021; 14:ma14247887. [PMID: 34947479 PMCID: PMC8705682 DOI: 10.3390/ma14247887] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2021] [Revised: 12/15/2021] [Accepted: 12/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Silicon borides represent very appealing industrial materials for research owing to their remarkable features, and, together with other boride and carbide-based materials, have very wide applications. Various Si-B phases have been investigated in the past, however a limited number of studies have been done on the pristine SiB6 compound. Structure prediction using a data mining ab initio approach has been performed in pure silicon hexaboride. Several novel structures, for which there are no previous experimental or theoretical data, have been discovered. Each of the structure candidates were locally optimized on the DFT level, employing the LDA-PZ and the GGA-PBE functional. Mechanical and elastic properties for each of the predicted and experimentally observed modifications have been investigated in great detail. In particular, the ductility/brittleness relationship, the character of the bonding, Young's modulus E, bulk modulus B, and shear modulus K, including anisotropy, have been calculated and analyzed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tamara Škundrić
- Materials Science Laboratory, Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of Belgrade, 11351 Belgrade, Serbia; (T.Š.); (B.M.); (J.Z.)
- Center for Synthesis, Processing and Characterization of Materials for Application in the Extreme Conditions “Cextreme Lab”, University of Belgrade, 11001 Belgrade, Serbia
| | - Branko Matović
- Materials Science Laboratory, Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of Belgrade, 11351 Belgrade, Serbia; (T.Š.); (B.M.); (J.Z.)
- Center for Synthesis, Processing and Characterization of Materials for Application in the Extreme Conditions “Cextreme Lab”, University of Belgrade, 11001 Belgrade, Serbia
| | - Aleksandra Zarubica
- Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics, University of Nis, 18000 Nis, Serbia;
| | - Jelena Zagorac
- Materials Science Laboratory, Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of Belgrade, 11351 Belgrade, Serbia; (T.Š.); (B.M.); (J.Z.)
- Center for Synthesis, Processing and Characterization of Materials for Application in the Extreme Conditions “Cextreme Lab”, University of Belgrade, 11001 Belgrade, Serbia
| | - Peter Tatarko
- Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Slovak Academy of Sciences, 845 36 Bratislava, Slovakia;
| | - Dejan Zagorac
- Materials Science Laboratory, Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of Belgrade, 11351 Belgrade, Serbia; (T.Š.); (B.M.); (J.Z.)
- Center for Synthesis, Processing and Characterization of Materials for Application in the Extreme Conditions “Cextreme Lab”, University of Belgrade, 11001 Belgrade, Serbia
- Correspondence:
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Škundrić T, Zagorac D, Schön J, Pejić M, Matović B. Crystal Structure Prediction of the Novel Cr2SiN4 Compound via Global Optimization, Data Mining, and the PCAE Method. Crystals 2021; 11:891. [DOI: 10.3390/cryst11080891] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
A number of studies have indicated that the implementation of Si in CrN can significantly improve its performance as a protective coating. As has been shown, the Cr-Si-N coating is comprised of two phases, where nanocrystalline CrN is embedded in a Si3N4 amorphous matrix. However, these earlier experimental studies reported only Cr-Si-N in thin films. Here, we present the first investigation of possible bulk Cr-Si-N phases of composition Cr2SiN4. To identify the possible modifications, we performed global explorations of the energy landscape combined with data mining and the Primitive Cell approach for Atom Exchange (PCAE) method. After ab initio structural refinement, several promising low energy structure candidates were confirmed on both the GGA-PBE and the LDA-PZ levels of calculation. Global optimization yielded six energetically favorable structures and five modifications possible to be observed in extreme conditions. Data mining based searches produced nine candidates selected as the most relevant ones, with one of them representing the global minimum in the Cr2SiN4. Additionally, employing the Primitive Cell approach for Atom Exchange (PCAE) method, we found three more promising candidates in this system, two of which are monoclinic structures, which is in good agreement with results from the closely related Si3N4 system, where some novel monoclinic phases have been predicted in the past.
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Abstract
The present work exemplifies complementary perspectives offered by the band and bond pictures of solids, with an emphasis on the chemical intuition pertaining to the latter, especially in the presence of interfaces. The modern computational method of constructing a unique set of maximally localized Wannier functions from delocalized band states imparts new interpretations to the familiar concept of chemical bonds in the context of crystalline solids. By bridging the band and bond pictures using advanced computational tools, we reveal for the first time the unusual bond characters of a long-predicted fivefold coordinated structure of binary octet compounds A N B8-N consisting of AA' stacked planar AB honeycombs. While the isolated monolayer retains the familiar p z -π bonding in a honeycomb framework as in graphene and hexagonal boron nitride, the bulk foregoes in-plane π bonding and embraces out-of-plane ⋯A-B-A-B⋯ chain bonding via overlapping p z orbitals. Not only does the chemical intuition gained by invoking the bond picture clarify the chemical nature of the fivefold coordination, but it also facilely explains a salient discrepancy in theoretical predictions in otherwise sound ample experimental evidence in the form of epitaxial thin films, paving the way towards rational synthesis of such thin films for optoelectronic applications. On the other hand, we show that the conduction band minimum, important in determining the electrical and optical properties, is a distinctly extended state that can only be properly described within the band picture.
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Affiliation(s)
- An-An Sun
- Department of Materials Science, Fudan University Shanghai 200433 China
| | - Shang-Peng Gao
- Department of Materials Science, Fudan University Shanghai 200433 China
| | - Gong Gu
- Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Tennessee Knoxville Tennessee 37996 USA
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Zagorac D, Müller H, Ruehl S, Zagorac J, Rehme S. Recent developments in the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database: theoretical crystal structure data and related features. J Appl Crystallogr 2019; 52:918-925. [PMID: 31636516 PMCID: PMC6782081 DOI: 10.1107/s160057671900997x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 92] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2019] [Accepted: 07/12/2019] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The article discusses how theoretical crystal data are supplementing experimental data for simulation and prediction of structures of inorganic solids in the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database. The Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD) is the world’s largest database of fully evaluated and published crystal structure data, mostly obtained from experimental results. However, the purely experimental approach is no longer the only route to discover new compounds and structures. In the past few decades, numerous computational methods for simulating and predicting structures of inorganic solids have emerged, creating large numbers of theoretical crystal data. In order to take account of these new developments the scope of the ICSD was extended in 2017 to include theoretical structures which are published in peer-reviewed journals. Each theoretical structure has been carefully evaluated, and the resulting CIF has been extended and standardized. Furthermore, a first classification of theoretical data in the ICSD is presented, including additional categories used for comparison of experimental and theoretical information.
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Affiliation(s)
- D Zagorac
- Technicum Scientific Publishing, Stuttgart, Germany.,Institute of Nuclear Sciences Vinča, Materials Science Laboratory, Belgrade University, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - H Müller
- FIZ Karlsruhe - Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure, Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - S Ruehl
- FIZ Karlsruhe - Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure, Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - J Zagorac
- Technicum Scientific Publishing, Stuttgart, Germany.,Institute of Nuclear Sciences Vinča, Materials Science Laboratory, Belgrade University, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - S Rehme
- FIZ Karlsruhe - Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure, Karlsruhe, Germany
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