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1. Theoretical and Experimental Insight into the Effect of Nitrogen Doping on Hydrogen Evolution Activity of Ni 3 S 2 in Alkaline Medium

   https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201703538  

   Kou, Tianyi ; Smart, Tyler ; Yao, Bin ; Chen, Irwin ; Thota, David ; Ping, Yuan ; Li, Yat ( March 2018 , Advanced Energy Materials)

   Nickel sulfide (Ni₃S₂) is a promising hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalyst by virtue of its metallic electrical conductivity and excellent stability in alkaline medium. However, the reported catalytic activities for Ni₃S₂are still relatively low. Herein, an effective strategy to boost the H adsorption capability and HER performance of Ni₃S₂through nitrogen (N) doping is demonstrated. N‐doped Ni₃S₂nanosheets achieve a fairly low overpotential of 155 mV at 10 mA cm⁻²and an excellent exchange current density of 0.42 mA cm⁻²in 1.0mKOH electrolyte. The mass activity of 16.9 mA mg⁻¹and turnover frequency of 2.4 s⁻¹obtained at 155 mV are significantly higher than the values reported for other Ni₃S₂‐based HER catalysts, and comparable to the performance of best HER catalysts in alkaline medium. These experimental data together with theoretical analysis suggest that the outstanding catalytic activity of N‐doped Ni₃S₂is due to the enriched active sites with favorable H adsorption free energy. The activity in the Ni₃S₂is highly correlated with the coordination number of the surface S atoms and the charge depletion of neighbor Ni atoms. These new findings provide important guidance for future experimental design and synthesis of optimal HER catalysts.

    

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2. (Digital Presentation) Multimodal Encapsulation of p-SnOx to Engineer the Carrier Density for Thin Film Transistor Applications

   https://doi.org/10.1149/MA2022-0215821mtgabs  

   Lee, Dong Hun ; Zhang, Yuxuan ; No, Kwangsoo ; Song, Han Wook ; Lee, Sunghwan ( October 2022 , ECS Meeting Abstracts)

   It has been challenging to synthesize p-type SnO_x(1≤x<2) and engineer the electrical properties such as carrier density and mobility due to the narrow processing window and the localized oxygen 2p orbitals near the valence band.

   We recently reported on the processing of p-type SnOx and an oxide-based p-n heterostructures, demonstrating high on/off rectification ratio (>10³), small turn-on voltage (<0.5 V), and low saturation current (~1×10^-10A)¹. In order to further understand the p-type oxide and engineer the properties for various electronic device applications, it is important to identify (or establish) the dominating doping and transport mechanisms. The low dopability in p-type SnOx, of which the causation is also closely related to the narrow processing window, needs to be mitigated so that the electrical properties of the material are to be adequately engineered^{2, 3}.

   Herein, we report on the multifunctional encapsulation of p-SnO_xto limit the surface adsorption of oxygen and selectively permeate hydrogen into the p-SnO_xchannel for thin film transistor (TFT) applications. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry measurements identified that ultra-thin SiO₂as a multifunctional encapsulation layer effectively suppressed the oxygen adsorption on the back channel surface of p-SnO_xand augmented hydrogen density across the entire thickness of the channel. Encapsulated p-SnO_x-based TFTs demonstrated much-enhanced channel conductance modulation in response to the gate bias applied, featuring higher on-state current and lower off-state current. The relevance between the TFT performance and the effects of oxygen suppression and hydrogen permeation is discussed in regard to the intrinsic and extrinsic doping mechanisms. These results are supported by density-functional-theory calculations.

   Acknowledgement

   This work was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Award No. ECCS-1931088. S.L. and H.W.S. acknowledge the support from the Improvement of Measurement Standards and Technology for Mechanical Metrology (Grant No. 20011028) by KRISS. K.N. was supported by Basic Science Research Program (NRF-2021R11A1A01051246) through the NRF Korea funded by the Ministry of Education.

   References

   Lee, D. H.; Park, H.; Clevenger, M.; Kim, H.; Kim, C. S.; Liu, M.; Kim, G.; Song, H. W.; No, K.; Kim, S. Y.; Ko, D.-K.; Lucietto, A.; Park, H.; Lee, S., High-Performance Oxide-Based p–n Heterojunctions Integrating p-SnOx and n-InGaZnO.ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces2021,13(46), 55676-55686.

   Hautier, G.; Miglio, A.; Ceder, G.; Rignanese, G.-M.; Gonze, X., Identification and design principles of low hole effective mass p-type transparent conducting oxides.Nat Commun2013,4.

   Yim, K.; Youn, Y.; Lee, M.; Yoo, D.; Lee, J.; Cho, S. H.; Han, S., Computational discovery of p-type transparent oxide semiconductors using hydrogen descriptor.npj Computational Materials2018,4(1), 17.

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3. High‐Entropy Metal Sulfide Nanoparticles Promise High‐Performance Oxygen Evolution Reaction

   https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202002887  

   Cui, Mingjin ; Yang, Chunpeng ; Li, Boyang ; Dong, Qi ; Wu, Meiling ; Hwang, Sooyeon ; Xie, Hua ; Wang, Xizheng ; Wang, Guofeng ; Hu, Liangbing ( November 2020 , Advanced Energy Materials)

   Transition metal sulfides with a multi‐elemental nature represent a class of promising catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) owing to their good catalytic activity. However, their synthesis remains a challenge due to the thermodynamic immiscibility of the constituent multimetallic elements in a sulfide structure. Herein, for the first time the synthesis of high‐entropy metal sulfide (HEMS, i.e., (CrMnFeCoNi)S_x) solid solution nanoparticles is reported. Computational and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis suggest that the (CrMnFeCoNi)S_xexhibits a synergistic effect among metal atoms that leads to desired electronic states to enhance OER activity. The (CrMnFeCoNi)S_xnanoparticles show one of the best activities (low overpotential 295 mV at 100 mA cm⁻²in 1mKOH solution) and good durability (only slight polarization after 10 h by chronopotentiometry) compared with their unary, binary, ternary, and quaternary sulfide counterparts. This work opens up a new synthesis paradigm for high‐entropy compound nanoparticles for highly efficient electrocatalysis applications.

    

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4. Untangling the Sources of Abundance Dispersion in Low-metallicity Stars

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aca659  

   Griffith, Emily J. ; Johnson, Jennifer A. ; Weinberg, David H. ; Ilyin, Ilya ; Johnson, James W. ; Rodriguez-Martinez, Romy ; Strassmeier, Klaus G. ( February 2023 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   We measure abundances of 12 elements (Na, Mg, Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni) in a sample of 86 metal-poor (−2 ≲ [Fe/H] ≲ −1) subgiant stars in the solar neighborhood. Abundances are derived from high-resolution spectra taken with the Potsdam Echelle Polarimetric and Spectroscopic Instrument on the Large Binocular Telescope, modeled using iSpec and MOOG. By carefully quantifying the impact of photon-noise (<0.05 dex for all elements), we robustly measure theintrinsicscatter of abundance ratios. At fixed [Fe/H], the rms intrinsic scatter in [X/Fe] ranges from 0.04 (Cr) to 0.16 dex (Na), with a median of 0.08 dex. Scatter in [X/Mg] is similar, and accounting for [α/Fe] only reduces the overall scatter moderately. We consider several possible origins of the intrinsic scatter with particular attention to fluctuations in the relative enrichment by core-collapse supernovae (CCSN) and Type Ia supernovae and stochastic sampling of the CCSN progenitor mass distribution. The stochastic sampling scenario provides a good quantitative explanation of our data if the effective number of CCSN contributing to the enrichment of a typical sample star isN∼ 50. At the median metallicity of our sample, this interpretation implies that the CCSN ejecta are mixed over a gas mass ∼6 × 10⁴M_⊙before forming stars. The scatter of elemental abundance ratios is a powerful diagnostic test for simulations of star formation, feedback, and gas mixing in the early phases of the Galaxy.

    

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5. Nanostructured Ternary Nickel‐Based Mixed Anionic (Telluro)‐Selenide as a Superior Catalyst for Oxygen Evolution Reaction

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ente.202300177  

   Abdullahi, Ibrahim Munkaila ; Thomas, Siby ; Gagliardi, Alessio ; Zaeem, Mohsen Asle ; Nath, Manashi ( April 2023 , Energy Technology)

   Developing protocols for designing high‐efficiency, durable, cost‐effective electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) necessitates deeper understanding of structure–property correlation as a function of composition. Herein, it has been demonstrated that incorporating tellurium into binary nickel chalcogenide (NiSe) and creating a mixed anionic phase perturbs its electronic structure and significantly enhances the OER activity. A series of nanostructured nickel chalcogenides comprising a layer‐by‐layer morphology along with mixed anionic ternary phase are grown in situ on nickel foam with varying morphological textures using simple hydrothermal synthesis route. Comprehensive X‐ray diffraction, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and in situ Raman spectroscopy analysis confirms the formation of a trigonal single‐phase nanocrystalline nickel (telluro)‐selenide (NiSeTe) as a truly mixed anionic composition. The NiSeTe electrocatalyst exhibits excellent OER performance, with a low overpotential of 300 mV at 50 mA cm⁻²and a small Tafel slope of 98 mV dec⁻¹in 1 mKOH electrolyte. The turnover frequency and mass activity are 0.047 s⁻¹and 90.3 Ag⁻¹, respectively. Detailed electrochemical measurements also reveal enhanced charge transfer properties of the NiSeTe phase compared to the mixture of binaries. Density functional theory calculations reveal favorable OH adsorption energy in the mixed anionic phase compared to the binary chalcogenides confirming superior electrocatalytic property.

    

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