Topological materials have been recently regarded as ideal catalysts for heterogeneous reactions due to their surface metallic states and high carrier mobility. However, the underlying relationship between their catalytic performance and topological states is under debate. It has been discovered that the electride 12CaO•7Al 2 O 3 (C12A7:4e − ) hosts multifold fermions and Fermi arcs on the (001) surface near the Fermi level due to the interstitial electrons. Through the comparison of catalytic performance under different doping and strain conditions, based on the hydrogen evolution process, it has been demonstrated that the excellent catalytic performance indeed originates from topological properties. A linear relationship between the length of Fermi arcs, and Gibbs free energy (𝚫G H* ) has been found, which not only provides the direct evidence to link the enhanced catalytic performance and surface Fermi arc states, but also fully clarifies the fundamental mechanism in topological catalysis.
Topological states of matter and their corresponding properties are classical research topics in condensed matter physics. Quite recently, the application of materials that feature these states has been extended to the field of electrochemical catalysis and become an emerging research topic that is receiving increasing interest. In particular, several recent experimental studies performed on topological semimetals have already revealed high catalytic performance towards hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), strongly promoting acceptance of the fresh concept of the topological catalyst. This emerging concept has experienced rapid developments in the last few years, but these developments have been rarely summarized.Herein, we offer a comprehensive review on the state-of-the-art progress in developing topological catalysts for the HER process through topological semimetals such as Weyl semimetals, Dirac semimetals, nodal line semimetals, etc. The course of development, the general research routes, and the fundamental mechanisms in topological catalysts are also systematically analyzed in this review.
Topological electrides have attracted extensive attention in various fields, for example, electrocatalysis, spintronics, electron emitters, etc., due to their non-trivial topological surface states and unique electronic properties. It is well known that topologically protected nontrivial surface states are not broken by external perturbations and further exhibit high carrier mobility and high electron density on some specific surfaces. In addition, electrides usually possess a lower work function due to the presence of approximately loose excess electrons. In this case, topological electrides not only build a bridge between topological materials and electrides, but also couple various excellent properties of these two materials. Since the concept of topological electrides was first proposed, several novel types of topological electrides have been reported in the last few years. Therefore, it is necessary to give a comprehensive review of these topological electrides. In this review, the history of the development of topological electrides and their current status is systematically summarized. In addition, relevant insights into the challenges and opportunities facing topological materials are provided.
RMn6Sn6 (R = rare earth element) kagome magnets have attracted much attention owing to their potential for realizing the emerging topological properties in both reciprocal and real spaces. One of the RMn6Sn6 members, ScMn6Sn6, is predicted to possess room temperature-stabilized chiral spin textures arising from frustrated exchange interactions, but further experimental evidence has not been well established yet. In this work, we fabricate high-quality ScMn6Sn6 single crystals and systematically study their magnetoelectric transport properties. A large topological Hall effect is observed within the temperature range from 100 to 320 K with the magnetic field applied along the parallel direction of the kagome plane. This observation suggests that the spin textures in ScMn6Sn6 have a nonzero scalar spin chirality over a wide temperature range. Our results identify ScMn6Sn6 as a promising member of the rare earth element kagome magnets that hosts chiral spin textures at room temperature.
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