Ligand (biochemistry)

Amorphous metal

Nanomaterials

Receptor

Nanotechnology

Electrode

Organic chemistry

Electrocatalyst

Crystallography

Transition metal

Engineering

Catalysis

Physical chemistry

Nanoparticle

Noble metal

Chemistry

Metallurgy

Materials science

Alloy

Metal

Amorphous solid

Chemical engineering

Electrochemistry

Biochemistry

Advanced Materials

Various kinds of amorphous materials, such as transition metal dichalcogenides, metal oxides, and metal phosphates, have demonstrated superior electrocatalytic performance compared with their crystalline counterparts. Compared to other materials for electrocatalysis, noble metals exhibit intrinsically high activity and excellent durability. However, it is still very challenging to prepare amorphous noble-metal nanomaterials due to the strong interatomic metallic bonding. Herein, the discovery of a unique thiol molecule is reported, namely bismuthiol I, which can induce the transformation of Pd nanomaterials from face-centered-cubic (fcc) phase into amorphous phase without destroying their integrity. This ligand-induced amorphization is realized by post-synthetic ligand exchange under ambient conditions, and is applicable to fcc Pd nanomaterials with different capping ligands. Importantly, the obtained amorphous Pd nanoparticles exhibit remarkably enhanced activity and excellent stability toward electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution in acidic solution. This work provides a facile and effective method for preparing amorphous Pd nanomaterials, and demonstrates their promising electrocatalytic application.

Ligand‐Exchange‐Induced Amorphization of Pd Nanomaterials for Highly Efficient Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Reaction