J.X. Mi †, X.P. Chen †, Y.J. Ding, L.Z. Zhang, J. Ma, H. Kang, X.H. Wu, Y.F. Liu, J.J. Chen *, Z.-S. Wu *

Chinese Journal of Catalysis, 2023, 48.

DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(23)64409-2 [PDF]

High entropy oxides (HEOs) have been tentatively and prospectively applied for chemical catalysis and energy storage. However, it is hard to further enhance its performance due to the difficult precise regulation of HEOs’ physical-chemical properties. In this work, a general in-situ modulation strategy of solid phase combustion using thiourea addition and alkali liquor treatment is firstly developed to activate metal sites and lattice oxygen species of CuCoNiZnAl HEOs. Consequently, the activated HEOs not only displays higher CO2 hydrogenation and CO oxidation activity, but also owns greatly better electrocatalytic performance (discharge/charge capacities of 12049/9901 mAh/g) with excellent cycle stability (2500 h) on Li-O2 battery than that of pristine HEOs. It is disclosed that the easier electron transfer ability over the activated HEOs guarantees its excellent performance. This simple and effective strategy could be easily used on a grand scale, which guides the development of creating highly active heterogeneous HEOs catalysts for various functional applications.