Intermediate Energies Research Articles

Regulating the redox cycle of nickel species for efficient seawater electrolysis

Promoting the self-reconstruction of NiFe-based catalysts represents a promising approach to facilitate seawater splitting, albeit with significant challenges. Herein, the redox cycle of Ni species is subtly regulated by decorating NiFe hydroxides with vanadium. Both experimental and theoretical studies demonstrate that the incorporation of V boosts the self-reconstruction of NiFe hydroxides and allows a superior OER performance on account of diminished propensity for chlorine adsorption and optimized binding energy of oxygen-containing intermediates. Consequently, the NiFeV/NF catalyst delivers 2.0 A cm−2 at an ultralow overpotential of 369 mV in 1.0 M KOH and exhibits exceptional stability for 720 h at 20 A in an alkaline membrane electrode assembly (MEA) electrolyzer. In alkaline seawater, it achieves prolonged stability, surpassing 240 h at 500 mA cm−2 with OER selectivity of 99 %. This work significantly advances the field of seawater electrolysis powered by marine renewables, paving the way for on-site hydrogen production.

Selective catalytic reduction of NO by CO over spinel CuFe2O4 catalyst: The vital role of oxygen vacancies

Oxygen vacancies are widely employed to augment the catalytic reactivity in the selective catalytic reduction of NO by CO (CO-SCR) process. Herein, the specific promotion mechanism of oxygen vacancies was intensively explored through a series of CuFe2O4 catalysts via experiments and density functional theory (DFT) simulations. After the modification of oxygen vacancies, NO conversion was enhanced by 20 %-32 % and N2 selectivity was improved. Characterizations revealed that the redox performance, NO adsorption and activation capacity, active centers, and acidic sites of CuFe2O4 can be improved by enriched oxygen vacancies, contributing to the superior CO-SCR performance. DFT results identified that the adsorption energies of reactants were elevated and the intermediate reaction energy barriers were decreased with more oxygen vacancies. Furthermore, the CO-SCR reaction pathways with CuFe2O4 catalyst were proposed according to in-situ test results: it follows the Langmuir-Hinshelwood (LH) and Eley-Rideal (ER) mechanisms in the low-temperature range (50–250 ℃) and the Marse-van-Krevelen (Mvk) mechanism in the high-temperature range (≥250 ℃). Overall, this work highlights the bright prospects of oxygen vacancies on the modification of CO-SCR catalysts.

Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics Enables para- and ortho-Selective Electrophilic Bromination of Nitrobenzene.

Coupling molecules to a quantized radiation field inside an optical cavity has shown great promise to modify chemical reactivity. In this work, we show that the ground-state selectivity of the electrophilic bromination of nitrobenzene can be fundamentally changed by strongly coupling the reaction to the cavity, generating ortho- or para-substituted products instead of the meta product. Importantly, these are products that are not obtained from the same reaction outside the cavity. A recently developed ab initio approach was used to theoretically compute the relative energies of the cationic Wheland intermediates, which indicate the kinetically preferred bromination site for all products. Performing an analysis of the ground-state electron density for the Wheland intermediates inside and outside the cavity, we demonstrate how strong coupling induces reorganization of the molecular charge distribution, which in turn leads to different bromination sites directly dependent on the cavity conditions. Overall, the results presented here can be used to understand cavity induced changes to ground-state chemical reactivity from a mechanistic perspective as well as to directly connect frontier theoretical simulations to state-of-the-art, but realistic, experimental cavity conditions.

Effect of boundary conditions on the low‐velocity impact damage mechanism of fiber metal laminate

AbstractThe boundary condition is a very important factor when characterizing the impact performance of a material or a structure. However, its effect on fiber metal laminate (FML) has been rarely mentioned. In the present investigation, three levels of low‐velocity impact tests were conducted on the glass fiber reinforced aluminum laminate (Glare) under two different boundary conditions, one was that defined in ASTM D7136 and another one was self‐designed that has the same constraint area but different constraint degree. One basis of the experiments, finite element analyses were performed to gain a deeper understanding of the different damage mechanisms. With which another three boundary conditions were investigated for further considering the effect of constraint areas on both the impact and non‐impact sides, including that defined in another commonly used standard ASTM D5628 and two self‐designed cases. It was indicated that the boundary conditions influenced less the force and energy responses of Glare laminate, regardless of the impact damage levels, and hardly on the damage behavior as well when perforation was encountered. However, influences were obtained under lower and intermediate damage levels, and it was the constraint area on the rear side and constraint degree that played the dominant roles, respectively. The results achieved can provide suggestions for reasonably evaluating the low‐velocity impact performance of FML.Highlights Comparisons were made between the low‐velocity impact behavior of Glare laminates under five different boundary conditions. Boundary conditions influenced hardly on maximum impact force and energy absorbed ratio, but evidently on damage behavior. Constraint area and constraint degree governed damage mechanism under lower and intermediate impact energies, respectively. Influence of boundary conditions on damage behavior disappeared when the impact energy was enough to perforate Glare laminate.

Defects engineering of nickel tellurium electrocatalyst to boost urea oxidation reaction: Electrodeposition mechanism and performance

The urea oxidation reaction (UOR) offers an attractive strategy to replace the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) for energy-saving hydrogen production due to its favorable thermodynamic property, but its development is hindered by the lack of efficient and cost-effective electrocatalysts. In this study, nickel-tellurium (Ni-Te) grown on 3D nickel foam was successfully synthesized using a simple and facile electrodeposition method. The electrodeposition process of Ni-Te follows the three-dimensional instantaneous nucleation/growth mechanism controlled by diffusion. The apparent activation energy (Ea) of Ni-Te in the electrodeposition process is as low as 36.5 kJ∙mol-1. Lattice distortion structure obtained by electrodeposition modifies the intrinsic electronic structure and optimizes the adsorption energy of intermediates. Thanks to the synergistic effects of fast electron transport, superhydrophilic surface and nanoflake structure, the prepared Ni-Te electrocatalyst shows excellent activity toward UOR with a low potential of 1.503 V vs. RHE at 100 mA·cm-2 and a small Tafel slope (63.6 mV·dec-1) in 1.0 M KOH containing 0.33 M urea solution.

Engineering atomically dispersed dual Pt–Ni sites on nitrogen-doped carbon with spherical core-shell structure for enhanced oxygen reduction activity towards microbial fuel cell

Inspired by the development of efficient, durable electrocatalytic functional materials to address the issues of kinetic retardation and mass transport to enhance oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), one strategy is proposed for core-shell structural nitrogen-doped carbon with atomically dispersed binary platinum-nickel (Pt–Ni) atoms (N–C@Pt–Ni/N–C) with controlled bimetallic sites and adjusted electronic coordination environment. Practical application of experimental and simulated theoretical calculation results show the coordination microenvironment optimization for active site can promote the charge rearrangement of Pt–Ni sites, thus regulating the free energy of the reaction intermediates of oxygen-containing species. The N–C@Pt–Ni/N–C reveals astounding catalytic capacity during ORR, leading to a large power density (1472.6 ± 50.6 mW m−2) and long-term reliability (OCP by the current loss with 0.1 mA) in the actual microbial fuel cells. This work not only reveals controllable preparation of functional materials with binary isolated atomic dispersion, but also presents more perspective of electronic structure optimal performance enhancement relationship at the atomic-sized active sites.

Stone-Wales defective C60 fullerene for hydrogen storage

Hydrogen energy is one of promising non-polluting and renewable energy sources. In this paper, we present a first principal study of hydrogen storage in pure C60 fullerene cage and Stone-Wales (SW) defective C60 cages using density functional theory (DFT) with applying both the exchange functional B3LYP and the dispersion correction wb97xd at 6–31+g(d,2p) basis set. In addition, the counterpoise correction is applied, and the basis set superposition error is calculated. The calculations underscore that the hydrogenation binding energy of C60 cages occurs through an endothermal process for C60Hin with a hydrogen binding energy of 0.09 eV and through an exothermal process for C60Hout, C60SW66Hout, and C60SW65Hout, cages with hydrogen binding energies of −2.17 eV, −2.96 eV, and −2.20 eV, respectively. Remarkably, for the first time, the intermediate hydrogen binding energy is found inside C60SW66Hin fullerene, and C60SW65Hin fullerene cages with energies of −0.26 eV and −0.81 eV, respectively. The hydrogen adsorption inside the cavity of C60SW66 fullerene cage is thermodynamically possible below 289.8 K and entire pressure range considered. Our results highlight, for the first time, that the endohedral cavity of C60SW66 is a promising new medium for hydrogen storage due to its binding energies (−0.26 eV) and its hydrogen storage weight percentage (5.3%) that are close to the optimal conditions specified by DOE for commercial use. In addition, this study opens up a new discovery of Stone-Wales defective C60 fullerene for further endohedral cavity applications.

In-situ vacancy defects triggered via organic solvent-water fusion for improved OER, HER, and supercapacitor performance

Simplifying the design of high-performance electrodes via efficient catalyst design is critical for alkaline water electrolysis and supercapacitor applications. Towards that end, we have developed the environmentally benign synthesis of ultrathin nanosheets of NiFe-layered double hydroxides (LDH) with inbuilt oxygen vacancies (VO) in this report. These NiFe-layered double hydroxide (GNiFe-LDH-VO) materials require low overpotentials for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER, η50 = 200 and η100 = 220 mV) with a small Tafel slope of 52.21 mV dec−1. The ex-situ characterizations and theoretical calculations suggest that oxygen vacancies configure to a more active state, resulting in the low binding energy of oxo intermediates, and thus much lower overpotential. Besides, it could operate stably for 100 h at current densities of 100 mA cm−2 for OER. It is significant that oxygen vacancies in GNiFe-LDH-VO aid in lowering the main obstacle of multistep OER, which will provide recommendations for the development of high-efficiency catalysts through in situ activation. In addition, GNiFe-LDH-VO exhibits a high areal capacitance of 1.6024 F cm−2 at a current density of 1 mA cm−2, with a capacitance retention ratio of 96.1% after 5000 galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD) cycles when they are used as supercapacitor electrodes.

Dynamics of electron capture in positron‐hydrogen scattering under dense semi‐classical plasmas

AbstractThe scattering dynamics of electron capture in ‐H(1 s) scattering under dense semi‐classical plasma (DSCP) environments has been investigated theoretically. Coupled multi‐channel two‐body Lippmann‐Schwinger equations have been solved by retaining +H(1 s) and p + Ps(1 s) channels to calculate the cross sections (CS) of the electron capture process at intermediate and high incident energies. The effective interaction of the plasma charged particles is modelled by a pseudopotential which is a function of two parameters, namely the plasma screening strength and the de Broglie wavelength. A detailed study is made to explore the changes in the CSs of the above‐mentioned process with respect to the variation in the plasma screening strength and de Broglie wavelength. Significant changes are found to take place, when the screening strength and the de Broglie wavelength are varied. Specifically, the sharp minimum in the differential CS moves toward the forward direction with increasing de Broglie wavelength at a given screening strength.

Constructing quasi‐amorphous cobalt oxyhydroxide nanowires with synergy of anion and cation via ion exchange reconstruction for large-current–density oxygen generation

Deep insight into the synergy between anion and cation aids in the maximization of catalytic activity and the rational exploitation of efficient oxygen-evolving catalysts. However, how to use ion exchange reconstruction to devise highly active and cost-efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts with anion and cation synergies for water electrolysis is rarely reported. Herein, the cobalt triphosphide (CoP3) nanowires are elaborately devised as a component-flexible precatalyst for directing an anodic reconfiguration with Ni cation exchange to construct a highly active and quasi‐amorphous cobalt oxyhydroxide (CoOOH) catalyst integrated with cation (Ni) substitution and oxyanion (PO43-) decoration (denoted by R-(Ni)CoP3). Interestingly, the structural evolution and the Ni cation exchange processes are captured through various in/ex situ techniques. The resultant R-(Ni)CoP3 nanowires display a splendid activity with low overpotentials of 406 and 420 mV to respectively deliver industrial grade current densities of 1000 and 1500 mA cm−2, and an outstanding stability over 300 h at a large current density of 500 mA cm−2, superior to most progressive cobalt-based OER materials and the benchmark IrO2. The combination of theoretical calculations with experimental studies demonstrate that the synergy of cation (Ni) substitution and oxyanion (PO43-) decoration can significantly modulate the electronic states of CoOOH and optimize the adsorption free energy of OER intermediates, thus immensely expediting the kinetics process and enhancing the charge transfer ability and the intrinsic OER activity. This research suggests ion-regulatory reconfiguration as a flexible and changeable strategy to construct various efficient and advanced catalysts for water electrolysis and beyond.

Elucidating the construction and modulation of built-in electric field in the oxygen evolution reaction

The construction of a built-in electric field (BIEF) is considered to be an effective strategy for enhancing catalyst performance due to its critical role in optimizing adsorption of reactants and key intermediates, as well as its positive impact on interface behavior. Herein, a strategy is developed to elucidate the correlation between oxygen evolution reaction activity and the BIEF and its strength by constructing and enhancing the BIEF through incorporating manganese into Co3O4@NiFe-LDH p-n heterojunction. This Co3O4@NiFe-LDH p-n heterojunction generates a BIEF that effectively regulates electronic structure, facilitates rapid electron transfer, induces alterations in the chemical microenvironment, and modulates intermediate adsorption energy. Notably, when hetoroatomic Mn is incorporated into the p-n heterojunction, particularly encapsulated within NiFe-LDH, a more pronounced enhancement for BIEF is observed. Benefiting from this strong BIEF, Co3O4@Mn/NiFe-LDH exhibits excellent OER activity and stability with an overpotential of only 209 mV at 50 mA cm−2, a Tafel slope of 57 mV dec−1, and stable operation for 110 h at approximately 10 mA cm−2. Moreover, density functional theory (DFT) calculations further confirms that the construction and reinforcement of the BIEF can effectively accelerate the electron transfer rates, adjust the metal d-band center, optimize intermediates adsorption properties, and reduce the reaction energy barriers.

Enhanced electrochemical nitrate reduction on copper nitride with moderate intermediates adsorption

Nitrate in surface and underground water caused systematic risk to the ecological environment. The electrochemically reduction of nitrate into ammonia (NO3RR), offering a sustainable route for nitrate containing wastewater treatment and ammonia fertilizer conversion. Exploration of catalyst with improved catalytic activity with lower energy barriers is still challenging. Here, we report a copper nitride (Cu3N) catalyst with moderate *NOx and *H2O intermediates adsorptions showed enhanced NO3RR performance. Density functional theory calculations reveals that the unique electronic structure of Cu3N provides efficient active sites for NO3RR, thus enabled balanced adsorption of *NO3 and *H2O (ΔE descriptor), sufficient active hydrogen, and moderate intermediate (*NO3 → HNO3, *NH2→*NH3) adsorption energy. Notably, the in-situ analysis technology revealed potential-driven reconstruction and rehabilitation of Cu3N, forming possible nitrogen vacancy, thus implied for better mechanism understanding. The NO3RR activity of Cu3N surpasses that of most recent catalysts and demonstrates superior stability and implies the application for NH4+ fertilizer recovery, which maintaining an NH3 Faradaic efficiency of 93.1 % and high yield rate of 2.9 mg cm2h−1 at −0.6 V versus RHE. These findings broaden the application scenarios of Cu3N catalyst for ammonia synthesis and provide strategy on improving NO3RR performance.

Triple-function Mn regulation of NiFe (oxy)hydroxide for oxygen evolution reaction

Transition metal (oxy)hydroxides are potential oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts; however, simultaneously modulating multiple factors to enhance their performance is a grand challenge. Here, we report an incorporating heteroatom strategy via one-step hydrothermal approach to adjust more than one factor of Mn-doped NiFe (oxy)hydroxide (Mn-NiFeOOH/LDH) heterojunction. Mn doping regulates heterojunction morphology (reducing nanoparticles and becoming thinner and denser nanosheets), Ni/Fe ratio and valence states (Ni2+, Ni3+, and Ni3+Δ) of Ni ions. The former could effectively increase surface active sites, and the latter two reduce the content of Fe in the Mnx-NiFeOOH/LDH heterojunction, enabling more Ni2+ convert to Ni3+/3+Δ that have higher intrinsic OER activity. As a result, the first-rank Mn-NiFeOOH/LDH with ultra-low overpotential of 185 mV@20 mA cm−2 and 296 mV@500 mA cm−2, and the improved OER performance are outdo to those of commercial RuO2 catalyst for OER. Moreover, the Mn-NiFeOOH/LDH affords the earliest initial potential (1.392 V vs. RHE), corresponds to a recorded low overpotential (162 mV). Based on the density functional theory (DFT), Mn dopants can alter intermediate adsorption energy and effectively decrease *OOH’s energy barrier. This research exhibits a feasible strategy to design low cost electrocatalysts and provide new possibilities for future industrialization.

Effects of La-N Co-Doping of BaTiO3 on Its Electron-Optical Properties for Photocatalysis: A DFT Study.

In cation-anion co-doping, rare earth elements excel at regulating the electronic structure of perovskites, leading to their improved photocatalytic performance. In this regard, the impact of co-doping rare earth elements at the Ba and Ti sites in BaTiO3 on its electronic and photocatalytic properties was thoroughly investigated based on 2 × 2 × 2 supercell structures of BaTiO3 with different La concentrations of 12.5% and 25% using DFT calculations. The band structure, density of states, charge density difference, optical properties, and the redox band edge of the co-doped models mentioned above were analyzed. The results indicated that the BaTiO3 structure co-doped with 25% La at the Ti site exhibited higher absorption in the visible range and displayed a remarkable photocatalytic water-splitting performance. The introduced La dopant at the Ti site effectively reduced the energy required for electronic transitions by introducing intermediate energy levels within the bandgap. Our calculations and findings of this study provide theoretical support and reliable predictions for the exploration of BaTiO3 perovskites with superior photocatalytic performances.

Preferential heteroatom substitution into ZnIn2S4 nanosheets boosts photocatalytic hydrogen production

Interior modification through preferential substitution of heteroatoms in 2D materials can rescue surface reactive sites for enhanced charge kinetics and photo-activity. Here, Ru and Ni heteroatoms were successfully incorporated in ZnIn2S4 (ZIS) nanosheets via a simple hydrothermal technique. Ru-ZIS photocatalysts exhibited improved photo–water splitting activity (26,400 µmol. h−1g−1) and good stability than that of Ni-ZIS and pristine ZIS under simulated sunlight, which may be related to the increase in reactive sites with Ru substitution, optimized adsorption-free energy of the reaction intermediates and charge kinetics. Ru substitution influenced Zn site availability and thus coordinated bonding with surrounding S ions. Ru-ZIS showed excellent hydrogen evolution performance and minimal change in Gibbs free energy (ΔGH, ∼0 eV). By analyzing the density of states, both Ru and S sites had greater H* intermediate absorption abilities. This study elaborates on the effect of preferential heteroatom substitution on photocatalytic performance and has widespread applications.

Tungsten doping-Induced electronic structure modulation in NiFe-based metal-organic frameworks for enhanced oxygen evolution reaction

NiFe-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are promising low-cost and easily prepared non-precious catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). However, effectively modulating the electronic structures in these electrocatalysts remains a critical challenge. In this study, we successfully incorporated tungsten into FeNi-MOF to synthesize W-doped FeNi2.4-MIL-53 and achieved electronic structure modulation. The results show that the optimized FeNi2.4W0.05-MIL-53 exhibits a lowe overpotential of 235 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, low Tafel slope of 43.3 mV dec−1, and high cyclability over 1000 cycles. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations demonstrate that the conversion from O* to OOH* is the rate-determining step on the active sites of FeNi2.4W0.05-MIL-53. The incorporation of tungsten induces an upshift of the d-band center of the active site, effectively modulating the adsorption energy of oxygen intermediates, thereby enhancing the catalytic activity.

Single-cluster anchored on PC6 monolayer as high-performance electrocatalyst for carbon dioxide reduction reaction: First principles study

Tremendous challenges remain to develop high-efficient catalysts for carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) owing to the poor activity and low selectivity. However, the activity of catalyst with single active site is limited by the linear scaling relationship between the adsorption energy of intermediates. Motivated by the idea of multiple activity centers, triple metal clusters (M = Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Pd, and Rh) doped PC6 monolayer (M3@PC6) were constructed in this study to investigate the CO2RR catalytic performance via density functional theory calculations. Results shows Mn3@PC6, Fe3@PC6, and Co3@PC6 exhibit high activity and selectivity for the reduction of CO2 to CH4 with limiting potentials of −0.32, −0.28, and −0.31 V, respectively. Analysis on the high-performance origin shows the more binding sites in M3@PC6 render the triple-atom anchored catalysts (TACs) high ability in regulating the binding strength with intermediates by self-adjusting the charges and conformation, leading to the improved performance of M3@PC6 than dual-atom doped PC6. This work manifests the huge application of PC6 based TACs in CO2RR, which hope to prove valuable guidance for the application of TACs in a broader range of electrochemical reactions.

Thermodynamic analysis of liquid air energy storage system integrating LNG cold energy

Liquid air energy storage (LAES) presents a promising solution to effectively manage intermittent renewable energy and optimize power grid peaking. This paper introduces a LAES system integrating LNG cold energy to flexibly manage power peaking, including intermediate energy storage, power generation using organic Rankine cycle, multi-stage direct expansion, and solar energy for heating. Aiming to maximize the electrical round-trip efficiency, a genetic algorithm is employed to optimize the operational parameters of the proposed LAES system. The results indicate that the combined design of cold energy utilization, multi-stage direct expansion and solar heating for proposed LAES system significantly improve the power performance, achieving an energy capacity of 0.125 kWh/kgLNG and an electrical round-trip efficiency of 376.7 %. The exergy losses of heat exchange equipment are far larger than mechanical equipment in the LAES system, so the optimization design of heat exchange equipment is preferred to improve the exergy performance. The proposed system achieves both high efficiency and flexibility and hence contributes to the development of liquid air energy storage systems.

Sub-bandgap photo-response of black silicon fabricated by femtosecond laser irradiation under water

Here we propose a method to fabricate black Si without the need for any chalcogenide doping, accomplished by femtosecond (fs) laser irradiation in a liquid environment, aiming to fabricate the infrared detector and investigating their optoelectronic performance. Multi-scale laser-induced periodical surface structures (LIPSSs), containing micron sized grooves decorated with low spatial frequency ripples on the surface, can be clearly observed by SEM and 3D confocal microscope. The generated black Si demonstrates superior absorption capabilities across a broad wavelength range of 200-2500 nm, achieving an average absorptance of up to 71%. This represents a notable enhancement in comparison to untreated Si, which exhibits an average absorption rate of no more than 20% across the entire detectable spectrum. A metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) type photodetector was fabricated based on this black Si, demonstrating remarkable optoelectronic properties, specifically, it attains a responsivity of 50.2 mA/W@10 V and an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 4.02% at a wavelength of 1550 nm, significantly outperforming the unprocessed Si by more than five orders of magnitude. The great enhancement in infrared absorption as well as the optoelectronic performance can be ascribed to the synergistic effect of the multi-scale LIPSSs and the generated intermediate energy levels. On one hand, the multi-scale structures contribute to an anti-reflection and light trapping property; on the other hand, the defects levels generated through fs laser ablation process under water may narrow the band gap of the Si. The results therefore underscore the remarkable potential of black Si processed by fs laser under water for the application of photodetection, especially in the near-infrared band.

Designing the bimetallic catalysts by the adsorption strength of metal atoms for efficient oxygen reduction: A density functional theory study

In this paper, a new design principle for bimetallic catalysts is proposed by combining strongly adsorbed atoms (SAA) with weakly adsorbed atoms (WAA) where the SAA and WAA are classified by the free adsorption energy of oxygen-containing intermediates on the metal atom. And the ORR performances of the bimetallic catalysts designed by the method are compared with the common single metal atom catalysts. The method is successfully confirmed as the overpotential of the Mn-based bimetallic catalysts decreases from 0.63 V in G-MnN4 to as low as 0.33 V, and that of the Fe-based bimetallic catalysts decreases from 0.76 V in G-FeN4 to 0.23 V. In addition, the correlation between adsorption free energy and adsorption bond length is revealed for the first time, and the optimal adsorption bond length is determined. Finally, the adsorption energy of O2 is plotted versus the free adsorption energy of three oxygen-containing intermediates for the first time, and a suitable adsorption energy of O2 is found to be -1.4∼-1.0 eV. These findings provide a new perspective for the design of high-performance bimetallic catalysts.