Stability of high-entropy alloys under electrocatalytic conditions
Attila Kormányos,
Qi Dong,
Bin Xiao,
Tangyuan Li,
Alan Savan,
Ken Jenewein,
Tatiana Priamushko,
Andreas Körner,
Thomas Böhm,
Andreas Hutzler,
Liangbing Hu,
Alfred Ludwig,
Serhiy Cherevko
Affiliations
Attila Kormányos
Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy (IEK-11), Cauerstraße 1, 91058 Erlangen, Germany; Department of Physical Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Szeged, Aradi sq. 1, 6720 Szeged, Hungary; Corresponding author
Qi Dong
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, United States
Bin Xiao
Materials Discovery and Interfaces, Institute for Materials, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany
Tangyuan Li
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, United States
Alan Savan
Materials Discovery and Interfaces, Institute for Materials, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany
Ken Jenewein
Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy (IEK-11), Cauerstraße 1, 91058 Erlangen, Germany; Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Egerlandstr. 3, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Tatiana Priamushko
Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy (IEK-11), Cauerstraße 1, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Andreas Körner
Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy (IEK-11), Cauerstraße 1, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Thomas Böhm
Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy (IEK-11), Cauerstraße 1, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Andreas Hutzler
Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy (IEK-11), Cauerstraße 1, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Liangbing Hu
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, United States; Center for Materials Innovation, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, United States
Alfred Ludwig
Materials Discovery and Interfaces, Institute for Materials, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany
Serhiy Cherevko
Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy (IEK-11), Cauerstraße 1, 91058 Erlangen, Germany; Corresponding author
Summary: High-entropy alloys are claimed to possess superior stability due to thermodynamic contributions. However, this statement mostly lies on a hypothetical basis. In this study, we use on-line inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer to investigate the dissolution of five representative electrocatalysts in acidic and alkaline media and a wide potential window targeting the most important applications. To address both model and applied systems, we synthesized thin films and carbon-supported nanoparticles ranging from an elemental (Pt) sample to binary (PtRu), ternary (PtRuIr), quaternary (PtRuIrRh), and quinary (PtRuIrRhPd) alloy samples. For certain metals in the high-entropy alloy under alkaline conditions, lower dissolution was observed. Still, the improvement was not striking and can be rather explained by the lowered concentration of elements in the multinary alloys instead of the synergistic effects of thermodynamics. We postulate that this is because of dissolution kinetic effects, which are always present under electrocatalytic conditions, overcompensating thermodynamic contributions.
