Atomically Engineered Defect‐Rich Palladium Metallene for High‐Performance Alkaline Oxygen Reduction Electrocatalysis

• DOI: 10.1002/advs.202405187
• Publication Date: 2024-08-19T17:04:47Z
• Authors: Yupeng Zhao; Zhengfan Chen; Nana Ma; Weiyi Cheng; Dong Zhang; Kecheng Cao; Fan Feng; Dandan Gao; Rongji Liu; Shujun Li; Carsten Streb
• Keywords: Alkaline fuel cell

Abstract Defect engineering is a key chemical tool to modulate the electronic structure and reactivity of nanostructured catalysts. Here, it reported how targeted introduction defect sites in 2D palladium metallene nanostructure results highly active catalyst for alkaline oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). A defect‐rich WO x MoO modified Pd (denoted: D‐Pd M) synthesized by facile scalable approach. Detailed structural analyses reveal presence three distinct atomic‐level defects, that are pores, concave surfaces, surface‐anchored individual sites. Mechanistic studies these defects result excellent catalytic ORR activity (half‐wave potential 0.93 V vs. RHE, mass 1.3 mgPd −1 at 0.9 RHE), outperforming commercial references Pt/C Pd/C factors ≈7 ≈4, respectively. The practical usage compound demonstrated integration into custom‐built Zn‐air battery. At low M loading (26 µgPd cm −2 ), system achieves high specific capacity (809 mAh g Zn ) shows discharge stability. This study therefore provides blueprint molecular design nanostructures advanced energy technology applications.