In the search for catalysts for the energy transition, materials made of at least five elements, so-called high-entropy alloys, are particularly promising. But there are theoretically millions of them - how do you find the most powerful one? A research team at Ruhr University Bochum has now succeeded in placing all possible combinations of five elements on one carrier using a sputtering process.
All the starting materials are applied simultaneously from different directions and are deposited in different mixing ratios at each point. Pinhole apertures ensure that each material mixture is only created in a tiny spot of around 100 micrometers in diameter on the substrate. In addition, the researchers developed a method to analyze the electrocatalytic potential of each of the combinations very quickly, known as scanning electrochemical cell microscopy, or SECCM for short. This involves measuring the electrochemical properties of the material at a specific point using a suspended nanodroplet of electrolyte with a thousandth of the diameter of a hair. These methods are intended to speed up the search for potential catalysts many times over.
