Molybdenum phosphide was adopted as a new electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction for the first time, exhibiting an excellent electrocatalytic activity with a small Tafel slope of 60 mV dec(-1), which is amongst the most active, acid-stable, earth abundant HER electrocatalysts reported to date.

Bigger isn't better: Gold nanoclusters exhibit enhanced electrocatalytic activity in oxygen reduction when the core size decreased from Au(140) to Au(11), as reflected by the onset potential E(onset) and peak current density J(K) (see picture). The increasing fraction of surface atoms with low coordination numbers and the shift of the d-band center to the Fermi level facilitate oxygen adsorption.

A new electrochemical strategy for the simple and ultrasensitive evaluation of DNA methyltransferase (MTase) activity was developed based on electrocatalytic oxidation of ascorbic acid by graphene. In addition, the suitability of this sensing platform for MTase inhibitor screening was also demonstrated.

N,S,Fe-doped graphene nanosheets were directly synthesized from aminothiazole, a precursor molecule that contains N and S atoms, through Fe catalysis under heat treatment. The graphene nanosheets exhibited high electrocatalytic activity toward oxygen reduction reaction in both acidic and alkaline media during rotating disk electrode half-cell and fuel cell tests.

Porous chalcogels CoMoS4 and NiMoS4 made by a facile solution reaction displayed good electrocatalytic activity in the redox reaction of the I(-)/I3(-) shuttle. Dye-sensitized solar cells with these ternary compounds as counter electrodes (CEs) showed photovoltaic performance similar to the devices made with noble metal platinum CE (7.46%).

A template-engaged strategy is used to synthesize nanostructured metal phosphides with different compositions. Among the as-synthesized metal phosphides, nickel cobalt phosphides quasi-hollow nanocubes exhibit the best electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction in terms of lower overpotential and smaller Tafel slope in alkaline solution.

A facile recipe has been developed to prepare three-dimensional nanoarchitectures of nitrogen-doped graphene loading Co nanoparticle hybrids (Co/NG). The hybrids show an outstanding electrocatalytic activity for glucose oxidation reaction (GOR) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), and thus can be used as electrode materials of a nonenzymatic and precious-metal-free glucose fuel cell (GFC).

We report a solution phase synthesis of monodispersed mesoporous Pd nanoparticles (MPNs) with narrow particle size distributions. The average particle sizes can be controlled to a range of 25 nm to 42 nm, by utilizing cationic surfactants (as structure-directing agents) and triblock copolymers (as protective agents for controlled Pd deposition). The obtained MPNs exhibit very high electrocataly...

Mixed-valent MnO(x) (1 < x < 2) was selectively synthesized by chemically etching MnO and Mn2O3 with ceric ammonium nitrate. The obtained MnO(x) exhibited greatly enhanced electrocatalytic activity toward the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) as compared to the corresponding pristine oxides.

An intumescent flame retardant (IFR), including melamine (MA), ammonium polyphosphate (APP), and polydopamine (PDA), was utilized as the precursor to prepare P,N co-doped hierarchically porous carbon which exhibited high electrocatalytic activity and durability for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). This finding indicates that an ingenious design of the precursor can lead to functional carbon...