Facile synthesis of metal carbides with high-entropy strategy for engineering electrical properties

Abstract

High-entropy (HE) materials, including multiple principal elements, have gained growing attraction for their unique structural stability and tunable property. However, high temperature is usually required to form a single phase in the preparation of high-entropy compounds, particularly high-entropy ceramics (e.g., carbides and silicides). Here, high-entropy carbide (HEC-700) was successfully fabricated via a simple gel-like method, in which heat treatment was as low as 700 °C. It is shown that the HEC-700 demonstrates a single-phased cubic structure with homogenous distribution of each element. As a result of the cooperative effect of multiple components, the as-synthesized HEC-700 proves to have a high electrical conductivity of about 4.5 × 10−5 S cm−1 at 300 K. Furthermore, HEC-700 exhibits significant activity in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) as well as oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), which can be a promising candidate for electrocatalyst.