To understand the mechanism of the reaction catalyzed by high-entropy-alloy (HEA) electrocatalysts, it has become increasingly crucial to investigate the chemical nature of the adsorbed intermediate species on the metal sites. Herein, we proposed a high-entropy atomic environment regulation strategy to convert inactive to active sites for electrocatalysis. Integrating the low-electronegativity Mn and high-electronegativity Cu with Fe, Co, and Ni base metals to form a FeCoNiCuMn HEA nanoparticles (NPs) would drive the inactive Cu to electron-enriched active sites through the strong local electron interaction induced by electronegativity differences, thus availably reducing the adsorption energies of the reactants, intermediates and products and accordingly enhancing the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity of HEA. The HEA achieved excellent electrocatalytic activity for both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) (281 mV at 100 mA cm⁻²) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) (386 mV at 200 mA cm⁻²) and exhibited superior cycling stability, outperforming the benchmark Pt/C and IrO₂ catalysts. This work presents breakthroughs in the design of advanced HEA electrocatalysts for complex reactions.

The development of high-efficiency nonprecious electrocatalysts based on inexpensive and Earth abundant elements is of great significance for renewable energy technologies. Group VIII transition metal phosphides (TMPs) gradually stand out due to their intriguing properties including low resistance and superior catalytic activity and stability. Herein, we adopt a unique MOF-derived strategy to synthesize transition metal phosphide nanoboxes which can be employed as electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction. During this process, we converted a Co-MOF to a CoNi-MOF by ion exchange and low-temperature phosphating to achieve CoNiP nanoboxes. The CoNiP nanoboxes can reach a current density of 10 mA cm⁻² at a low overpotential of 138 mV with a small Tafel slope of 65 mV dec⁻¹.

A type II heterojunction CdS/TpPa-1 with enhanced photocatalytic N₂ fixation performance was constructed by anchoring ultrafine CdS nanoparticles in the TpPa-1-COF matrix.