Cobalt-based spinel oxides are considered as potential candidates for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) due to their abundant valence changes and promising electrochemical activity, but low intrinsic activity hinders their practical...

Sustainable electrocatalytic hydrogen production is a vital method for producing clean energy. However, the current platinum catalysts are costly and complicated to prepare with low catalytic activity. To obtain efficient catalysts, a facile method with a rational electrode design is essential to improve platinum activity and stability, facilitating the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, we fabricated a self-supported HER composite electrode with abundant platinum activity sites by a simple metal−organic chemical vapor deposition, and nanostructured pine-like platinum was supported on carbon cloth (Pt/CC). Benefiting from the nanostructured pine-like platinum geometry, fast charge transfer, and good structure stability, this Pt/CC composite electrode exhibited excellent HER electrocatalytic activity. For HER, this electrode achieved a low overpotential of only 17.6 mV at 10 mA cm −2 in 1 M KOH. Moreover, Pt/CC exhibits long-term electrochemical durability, maintaining its catalytic activity for more than 30 h. What is more, this strategy can also be used on other self-supported substrates, e.g., nickel foam, to achieve high electrocatalytic activity. Thus, this work provides a simple and versatile method for the preparation of efficient HER catalysts.

Transition metal chalcogenides (TMCs) have been widely explored and utilized in sodium-ion battery (SIB) anodes due to their unique advantages such as high theoretical specific capacity and low cost. However,...

Single-crystal-to-single-crystal (SCSC) transformations provide more possibilities for phase transitions, which have attracted great attention in crystal engineering. In this paper, we report a series of reversible SCSC transformations between nanoscale two-dimensional layered double hydroxide (LDH) crystals and three-dimensional metal–organic framework crystals. They can proceed not only in solution systems but also on the surface of solid-state polyacrylonitrile films and fibers. Specifically, reversible SCSC transformations can be carried out between nanoscale ZIF-67 and Co-LDH. The Co-LDH nanomaterials displayed excellent oxygen evolution reaction performance. This work has good universality and scalability, which provides a novel avenue for the synthesis of crystal materials and is of great significance for the recycling of resources.