From Charge to Spin: An In-Depth Exploration of Electron Transfer in Energy Electrocatalysis

Catalytic materials play crucial roles in various energy-related processes, ranging from large-scale chemical production to advancements in renewable energy technologies. Despite a century of dedicated research, major enduring challenges associated with enhancing catalyst efficiency and durability, particularly in green energy-related electrochemical reactions, remain. Focusing only on either the crystal structure or electronic structure of a catalyst is deemed insufficient to break the linear scaling relationship (LSR), which is the golden rule for the design of advanced catalysts. The discourse in this review intricately outlines the essence of heterogeneous catalysis reactions by highlighting the vital roles played by electron properties. The physical and electrochemical properties of electron charge and spin that govern catalysis efficiencies are analyzed. Emphasis is placed on the pronounced influence of external fields in perturbing the LSR, underscoring the vital role that electron spin plays in advancing high-performance catalyst design. The review culminates by proffering insights into the potential applications of spin catalysis, concluding with a discussion of extant challenges and inherent limitations.

Observation of Asymmetric Oxidation Catalysis with B20 Chiral Crystals

Heterogeneous processes for enantiomeric processes based on inorganic crystals have been a topic of resurgent interest. However, it remains a challenge to answer the question of what the driving forces for the emergence of homochirality in nature and chemical reactions are. Here, we propose one possible driver of enantioselectivity, namely orbital angular momentum (OAM) polarization. Enantioselective recognition of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) was achieved by using B20 group PdGa crystals. Orbital textures of PdGa enantiomers suggest large OAM polarization for the bands near the Fermi level and carrying opposite signs. A positive or a negative magnetization in the [111] direction is expected depending on the handedness of PdGa crystal. This leads to the difference in adsorption energy between PdGa chiral crystals and DOPA molecules, depending on the pairing ability between the O 2p (DOPA) and Pd 4d orbital (PdGa). These results provide a new route to achieving enantioselectivity with pure inorganic crystals and may hold an answer to the origin of chirality in nature.

Chiral Phonon Diode Effect in Chiral Crystals

The diode effect means that carriers can only flow in one direction but not the other. While diode effects for electron charge, spin, or photon have been widely discussed, it remains a question whether a chiral phonon diode can be realized, which utilizes the chiral degree of freedom of lattice vibrations. In this work, we reveal an intrinsic connection between the chiralities of a crystal structure and its phonon excitations, which naturally leads to the chiral phonon diode effect in chiral crystals. At a certain frequency, phonons with a definite chirality can propagate only in one direction but not the opposite. We demonstrate the idea in concrete materials including bulk Te and α-quartz (SiO₂). Our work discovers the fundamental physics of chirality coupling between different levels of a system, and the predicted effect will provide a new route to control phonon transport and design information devices.

Ultrathin Twisted Germanium Sulfide van der Waals Nanowires by Bismuth Catalyzed Vapor-Liquid-Solid Growth

1D nanowires of 2D layered crystals are emerging nanostructures synthesized by combining van der Waals (vdW) epitaxy and vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth. Nanowires of the group IV monochalcogenide germanium sulfide (GeS) are of particular interest for twistronics due to axial screw dislocations giving rise to Eshelby twist and precision interlayer twist at helical vdW interfaces. Ultrathin vdW nanowires have not been realized, and it is not clear if confining layered crystals into extremely thin wires is even possible. If axial screw dislocations are still stable, ultrathin vdW nanowires can reach large twists and should display significant quantum confinement. Here it is shown that VLS growth over Bi catalysts yields vdW nanowires down to ≈15 nm diameter while maintaining tens of µm length. Combined electron microscopy and diffraction demonstrate that ultrathin GeS nanowires crystallize in the orthorhombic bulk structure but can realize nonequilibrium stacking that may lead to 1D ferroelectricity. Ultrathin nanowires carry screw dislocations, remain chiral, and achieve very high twist rates. Whenever the dislocation extends to the nanowire tip, it continues into the Bi catalyst. Eshelby twist analysis demonstrates that the ultrathin nanowires follow continuum predictions. Cathodoluminescence on individual nanowires, finally, shows pronounced emission blue shifts consistent with quantum confinement.

Long-Range Spin-Selective Transport in Chiral Metal-Organic Crystals with Temperature-Activated Magnetization

Room-temperature, long-range (300 nm), chirality-induced spin-selective electron conduction is found in chiral metal-organic Cu(II) phenylalanine crystals, using magnetic conductive-probe atomic force microscopy. These crystals are found to be also weakly ferromagnetic and ferroelectric. Notably, the observed ferromagnetism is thermally activated, so that the crystals are antiferromagnetic at low temperatures and become ferromagnetic above ∼50 K. Electron paramagnetic resonance measurements and density functional theory calculations suggest that these unusual magnetic properties result from indirect exchange interaction of the Cu(II) ions through the chiral lattice.

Enantiomeric Control of Intrinsically Chiral Nanocrystals

The chiral aspect of inorganic crystals that crystallize in chiral space groups has been largely ignored until recently, partly due to difficulties in characterizing the chiroptical properties of bulk crystals, and also due to the difficulty in separating (sub)micrometer-scale chiral crystal enantiomers. In recent years, the colloidal synthesis of intrinsically chiral nanocrystals (NCs) of several chiral inorganic compounds with significant enantiomeric excess has been demonstrated. This is achieved through the use of chiral molecular ligands, which bind to the atomic/ionic components of the crystals, preferentially forming one crystal enantiomorph. Here, recent progress on several aspects of these NCs is described, including the connection between ligand structure and its ability to direct NC handedness, chiral amplification in the synthesis leading to enantiopure NC samples, spontaneous symmetry breaking, the formation of NCs with chiral shapes, the connection between lattice and shape chirality and mixed contributions of atomic-scale and shape chirality to the chiroptical properties.

Topological Engineering of Pt-Group-Metal-Based Chiral Crystals toward High-Efficiency Hydrogen Evolution Catalysts

It has been demonstrated that topological nontrivial surface states can favor heterogeneous catalysis processes such as the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), but a further decrease in mass loading and an increase in activity are still highly challenging. The observation of massless chiral fermions associated with large topological charge and long Fermi arc (FA) surface states inspires the investigation of their relationship with the charge transfer and adsorption process in the HER. In this study, it is found that the HER efficiency of Pt-group metals can be boosted significantly by introducing topological order. A giant nontrivial topological energy window and a long topological surface FA are expected at the surface when forming chiral crystals in the space group of P2₁ 3 (#198). This makes the nontrivial topological features resistant to a large change in the applied overpotential. As HER catalysts, PtAl and PtGa chiral crystals show turnover frequencies as high as 5.6 and 17.1 s^-1 and an overpotential as low as 14 and 13.3 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 . These crystals outperform those of commercial Pt and nanostructured catalysts. This work opens a new avenue for the development of high-efficiency catalysts with the strategy of topological engineering of excellent transitional catalytic materials.

Two pseudo-enantiomeric forms of N-benzyl-4-hydroxy-1-methyl-2,2-dioxo-1H-2λ(6),1-benzothiazine-3-carboxamide and their analgesic properties

The fact that molecular crystals exist as different polymorphic modifications and the identification of as many polymorphs as possible are important considerations for the pharmaceutic industry. The molecule of N-benzyl-4-hydroxy-1-methyl-2,2-dioxo-1H-2λ(6),1-benzothiazine-3-carboxamide, C17H16N2O4S, does not contain a stereogenic atom, but intramolecular hydrogen-bonding interactions engender enantiomeric chiral conformations as a labile racemic mixture. The title compound crystallized in a solvent-dependent single chiral conformation within one of two conformationally polymorphic P212121 orthorhombic chiral crystals (denoted forms A and B). Each of these pseudo-enantiomorphic crystals contains one of two pseudo-enantiomeric diastereomers. Form A was obtained from methylene chloride and form B can be crystallized from N,N-dimethylformamide, ethanol, ethyl acetate or xylene. Pharmacological studies with solid-particulate suspensions have shown that crystalline form A exhibits an almost fourfold higher antinociceptive activity compared to form B.