We developed a facile ultrasonic vibration route is developed to synthesize BMGs and metallic glass-glass composites.

Superhydrophobic surface with mechanical stability and corrosion resistance is long expected due to its practical applications. We show that a micro-nano scale hierarchical structured Pd-based metallic glass surface with superhydrophobic effect can be prepared by the thermoplastic forming, which is a unique and facile synthesis strategy for metallic glasses. The superhydrophobic metallic glass surface without modification of low surface energy chemical layer also exhibits superior mechanical stability and corrosion resistance compared with conventional superhydrophobic materials. Our results indicate that the metallic glass is a promising candidate superhydrophobic material for applications.

Efficiency and stability are the key parameters for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) of water electrolysis, and therefore developing effective and robust catalysts has been a long standing pursuit. In this work, we propose a flexible and universal strategy to synthesize catalysts with excellent HER catalytic performance. Following this strategy, we successfully fabricate a hybrid electrocatalyst by decorating Pt particles on a nano engineered metallic glass (MG) surface (Pt@MG NWs). The overpotential of the catalyst to achieve a geometric current density of 10 mA cm⁻² is 48.5 mV in 0.5 M H₂SO₄. Astonishingly, the Tafel slope is only 19.8 mV dec⁻¹, smaller than that of commercial 10% Pt/C. The Pt@MG NWs exhibit excellent charge transport efficiency and contain around 3 times more active sites than 10% Pt/C. In addition, the Pt@MG NWs are ultra-stable, exhibiting no degradation after the HER at overpotentials of 48.5 mV and 84 mV for 20 hours. Furthermore, this catalyst shows enhanced catalytic performance when a large working current is applied at an overpotential of 200 mV for 500 hours. The hydrophilicity and aerophobicity of Pt@MG NWs, which originate from surface structural construction, are responsible for the outstanding HER catalytic performance. The calculations found that the hybrid electrocatalyst exhibits small Gibbs free energy and strong H₂O adsorption energy. Our results provide a novel and universal approach for designing superior HER catalysts with excellent activity and stability.