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Rapid synthesis of subnanoscale high-entropy alloys with ultrahigh durability

Nature Materials (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Subnanoscale (<2 nm) high-entropy alloys (SHEAs) have garnered increasing attention for their unique physicochemical properties that enable high catalytic performance. However, this potential is offset by reduced stability, a characteristic typically associated with high-entropy alloys, due to their high reactivity at this scale. Here we circumvent this obstacle by using the localized surface plasmon resonance effect along with laser fragmentation in liquids for synthesizing SHEAs. Localized-surface-plasmon-resonance-generated hot electrons from gold nanoparticles facilitate metal ion reduction, whereas the 7-ns laser pulse induces ultrafast heating and cooling cycles, fusing multiple metals into SHEAs with enhanced stability. This method enables the incorporation of up to ten elements into SHEAs. The selected AuPtRuRhIr SHEAs demonstrate high stability to work under 2 A cm−2 at 2.12 V for over 1,200 h in a proton exchange membrane electrolyser. This work presents a general strategy for the preparation of SHEAs, applicable across a wide range of fields.

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Fig. 1: Morphology, composition and structure characterization of AuPtRuRhIr SHEAs.
Fig. 2: Elemental distribution of SHEAs.
Fig. 3: MD simulations of SHEAs.
Fig. 4: Electrocatalytic performance of AuPtRuRhIr SHEAs for electrochemical water splitting.

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Data availability

All data used for this study are available in the ScienceDB repository at https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.29049 (ref. 57). Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the USTC Center for Micro- and Nanoscale Research and Fabrication for their support. This work is funded by the National Key R&D Program of China (2020YFA0406103 and 2022YFE0126500), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21725102, 91961106, 22150610467 and 22232003), the Strategic Priority Research Program of CAS (XDPB14) and the Open Funding Project of National Key Laboratory of Human Factors Engineering (SYFD062010K).

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Chao Zhang, Zhongliao Wang, Chang Liu.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Experimental Center of Engineering and Material Sciences, School of Engineering Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Chao Zhang, Chang Liu, Yu Bai, Jingxiang Low & Yujie Xiong

  2. Anhui Engineering Research Center of Carbon Neutrality, The Key Laboratory of Functional Molecular Solids, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, China

    Chao Zhang & Yujie Xiong

  3. Key Laboratory of Green and Precise Synthetic Chemistry and Applications, Ministry of Education, Huaibei Normal University, Huaibei, China

    Zhongliao Wang

  4. Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Institute of Solid State Physics, HFIPS, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, China

    Changhao Liang

  5. School of Physical Science and Technology, Tiangong University, Tianjin, China

    Jingxiang Low

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Contributions

C.Z. and J.L. conceived the research and designed the experiments. C.Z., J.L., Y.B. and C. Liu performed the synthesis and characterization of samples and the measurements of HER and OER. C.Z. and C. Liang developed the LFL system. Z.W. performed the materials simulations. C.Z., J.L. and Y.X. analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jingxiang Low or Yujie Xiong.

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Nature Materials thanks Stephan Barcikowski and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–64, Tables 1–9, Notes 1–5 and refs. 1–60.

Supplementary Video 1

H2 bubble evolution during HER process on electrode.

Supplementary Video 2

O2 bubble evolution during OER process on electrode.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 1

Size distribution data plotted in Fig. 1f and XRD data plotted in Fig. 1h.

Source Data Fig. 3

MD simulations data plotted in Fig. 3.

Source Data Fig. 4

Electrochemical data plotted in Fig. 4.

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Zhang, C., Wang, Z., Liu, C. et al. Rapid synthesis of subnanoscale high-entropy alloys with ultrahigh durability. Nat. Mater. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-025-02358-9

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