Abstract
Heterostructured catalysts are essential for energy conversion and storage. However, scaling up their synthesis while maintaining precise control over diverse components is challenging. Here we introduce the difference in oxidation potential between metals and carbon as a thermodynamic factor for designing multielement heterostructures. A roll-to-roll carbothermal shock technology was developed to achieve one-step synthesis and continuous manufacturing of multielement heterostructured catalysts. A variety of heterostructured catalysts, from single elements to high-entropy alloys, oxides and their combinations, could be synthesized using this method. In addition, kinetic tunability enables precise control over elemental distributions and helps to identify distinct elemental regions to guide the fine-tailoring of heterostructured catalysts. As a proof of concept, we demonstrated rapid screening of PtCo@La–TiO2 for alkaline hydrogen evolution. Our work proposes an advanced technology for rapid synthesis, screening and continuous production of multielement heterostructured catalysts.
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Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (grant no. 2021YFA1202300), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 22325901, 52371223, 52401280, 52101255 and 52272046), the Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS202405) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of HUST (grant nos. 2023JCYJ004 and YCJJ20242227). Y.S. acknowledges the ‘Young Talent Support Plan’ of Xi’an Jiaotong University. Supercomputing facilities were provided by Hefei Advanced Computing Center. We thank the test support from the Analytical and Testing Center of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, the State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing, and Die and Mould Technology.
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Y.Y. and B.Y.X. conceived and designed the project. W.S. synthesized the materials. W.S., H.L., H.Z., L.Z. and K.Y. carried out the electrochemical testing. W.S., Zihui Liang, J.Z., B.Y.X. and Y.Y. contributed to the characterization and related discussion. W.S., F.T., Y.L. and Zihui Liang performed the contact angle measurements. Y.S. and S.S. contributed to the theoretical calculations. J.Z., Y.W, Y.G., D.S. and Zhiqiang Liang. contributed to the STEM measurements. Y.L. designed the roll-to-roll equipment. W.S., H.L., Y.H., B.Y.X. and Y.Y. cowrote and revised the paper. All the authors discussed the results.
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Supplementary Information
Supplementary Figs. 1–59 and Tables 1–7, and references.
Supplementary Movie 1
The roll-to-roll CTS process.
Supplementary Movie 2
The contact angle test of Pt/C electrode under-electrolyte.
Supplementary Movie 3
The contact angle test of Pt electrode under-electrolyte.
Supplementary Movie 4
The contact angle test of PtCo@TiO2 electrode under-electrolyte.
Supplementary Movie 5
The contact angle test of PtCo@La–TiO2 electrode under-electrolyte.
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Shi, W., Liu, H., Zhang, J. et al. Roll-to-roll synthesis of multielement heterostructured catalysts. Nat. Synth 4, 836–847 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-025-00758-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-025-00758-y
