Crystalline–Amorphous Heterophase PdMoCrW Tetrametallene: Highly Efficient Oxygen Reduction Electrocatalysts for a Long-Term Zn–Air Battery

Abstract

Metallenes have received sustained attention owing to their unique microstructure characteristics and compelling catalytic applications, but the synthesis of multielement crystalline–amorphous metallenes remains a formidable challenge. Herein, we report a one-step wet chemical reduction method to synthesize composition-tunable crystalline–amorphous heterophase PdMoCrW tetrametallene. As-synthesized PdMoCrW tetrametallene is composed of approximately six to seven atomic layers and has flexible crimpiness, a crystalline–amorphous heterophase structure, and high-valence metal species. Time-dependent experiments show that PdMoCrW tetrametallene follows a three-step growth mechanism that includes nucleation, lateral growth, and atom diffusion, respectively. The novel ultrathin structure, optimized Pd electronic structure, and hydrophilic surface together greatly promote the activity and stability of PdMoCrW tetrametallene in the alkaline oxygen reduction reaction. Pd75.9Mo9.4Cr8.9W5.8/C exhibits excellent mass and specific activities of 2.81 A mgPd –1 and 4.05 mA cm–2, which are 20.07/14.46 and 23.42/16.20 times higher than those of commercial Pt/C and Pd/C, respectively. Furthermore, a Zn–air battery assembled using Pd75.9Mo9.4Cr8.9W5.8/C as a cathode catalyst achieves a peak power density of 156 mW cm–2 and an ultralong durability of 329 h. This study reports an effective strategy for constructing crystalline–amorphous quaternary metallenes to advance non-Pt electrocatalysts toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance and for a Zn–air battery.