Flame synthesis achieves compositionally tailorable high-entropy metal- containing nanomaterials

Z Liu and E Goudeli and R Guo and HT Xie and QJ Luo and LC Zhao and WJ Xu and JJ Richardson and WJ Xu and F Caruso and SJ Pan, NATURE CHEMISTRY, 17 (2025).

DOI: 10.1038/s41557-025-01894-w

High-entropy metal-containing nanomaterials have garnered interest in diverse fields such as electrocatalysis and energy conversion. Their synthesis typically requires high temperatures (>1,000 K) to facilitate homogeneous mixing and rapid transformation of metal precursors. However, current state-of-the-art approaches typically involve complex reaction environments and require specialized equipment and operations. Herein we demonstrate a versatile flame synthesis process to fabricate high-entropy metallic single atoms and/or nanoparticles supported on soot-like carbon via blending organometallic precursors into fuel (namely, paraffin wax) and subsequent burning. The high flame temperature (similar to 1,800 K) enables strong metal-carbon association with tailorable chemistry and homogeneous bonding between dissimilar metallic elements (up to 25 metals studied), regardless of their thermodynamic compatibility. Additionally, we show high-performance electrosynthesis of hydrogen peroxide to highlight this approach as a promising method for electrocatalyst development.

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