Among them, the nitrogen-coordinated transition-metal (TM) single-atoms (SAs) supported on carbon substrates have emerged as a new class of ORR electrocatalysts with enormous potentials. [3-5] These SA electrocatalysts (SAECs) anchor TM-SAs to the carbon substrates via TMnitrogen (TMN x) coordination bonds that also act as the ORR active sites. It has been commonly accepted that the ORR activity of such TMN x-coordinated SA sites can be promoted by optimizing the binding strengths of ORR intermediates (e.g., *O 2 , *OOH, *OH, *O) to the active site via the altering of their electronic structures. [6] Various approaches have been reported to alter the electronic structures of TMN x-coordinated SA sites by modulating N types and coordinating numbers, [7] partially replacing N with other nonmetal elements (e.g., O, S, and P), [8] or the chemical compositions of carbon substrates. [9] Recently, the hetero-SAs (h-SAs) involving two different TMs (e.g., Co/Zn, Fe/Co, Fe/ Zn) have been successfully anchored to the carbon substrates as ORR SAECs. [10] Such an approach takes the advantage of the coexistence of two different TM-SA sites, through the pairing The development of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts based on earth-abundant nonprecious materials is critically important for sustainable large-scale applications of fuel cells and metal-air batteries. Herein, a hetero-single-atom (h-SA) ORR electrocatalyst is presented, which has atomically dispersed Fe and Ni coanchored to a microsized nitrogen-doped graphitic carbon support with unique trimodal-porous structure configured by highly ordered macropores interconnected through mesopores. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectra confirm that Fe-and Ni-SAs are affixed to the carbon support via FeN 4 and NiN 4 coordination bonds. The resultant Fe/Ni h-SA electrocatalyst exhibits an outstanding ORR activity, outperforming SA electrocatalysts with only Fe-or Ni-SAs, and the benchmark Pt/C. The obtained experimental results indicate that the achieved outstanding ORR performance results from the synergetic enhancement induced by the coexisting FeN 4 and NiN 4 sites, and the superior mass-transfer capability promoted by the trimodal-porous-structured carbon support. The development of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts based on earth-abundant nonprecious materials to replace the scarce platinum-group-metal-based ones is critically important for sustainable large-scale commercial applications of fuel cells and metal-air batteries. [1] The extensive research efforts over the recent years have led to a variety of The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under
A gradient heterosturcture is one of the basic methods to control the charge flow in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, a classical route for gradient heterosturctures is based on the diffusion technique, in which the guest ions gradually diffuse into the films from a concentrated source of dopants. The gradient heterosturcture is only accessible to the top side, and may be time consuming and costly. Here, the “intolerant” n‐type heteroatoms (Sb3+, In3+) with mismatched cation sizes and charge states can spontaneously enrich two sides of perovskite thin films. The dopants at specific sides can be extracted by a typical hole‐transport layer. Theoretical calculations and experimental observations both indicate that the optimized charge management can be attributed to the tailored band structure and interfacial electronic hybridization, which promote charge separation and collection. The strategy enables the fabrication of PSCs with a spontaneous graded heterojunction showing high efficiency. A champion device based on Sb3+ doped film shows a stabilized power‐conversion efficiency of 21.04% with a high fill factor of 0.84 and small hysteresis.
A facile two-step strategy is adopted to construct free-standing composite paper of MnO2 nanoflakes/polyaniline (PANI) nanorods hybrid nanostructures on reduced graphene oxide (RGO) for flexible supercapacitor electrode application.MnO2 nanoflakes are firstly grown on RGO paper via electrodeposition method, followed by assembly of PANI nanorods between MnO2 nanoflakes by in situ polymerization using camphorsulfonic acid as dopant. The morphology and structure of composite paper are characterized and the electrochemical properties are systematically investigated. The interconnected PANI nanorods deposited on the interlaced MnO2 nanoflakes have a length of ~100 nm and diameter of ~30 nm, creating plenty of open porous structures which are beneficial for ion penetration into the electrode. The RGO/MnO2/PANI composite paper shows a large specific capacitance of 636.5 F g -1 at 1.0 A g -1 in 1.0 M Na2SO4 electrolyte and excellent cycling stability (85% capacitance retention after 10 4 cycles). The optimized composite structure with more electroactive sites, fast ion and electron transfer, and strong structural integrity endows the ternary composite paper electrode with outstanding electrochemicalperformance.
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