A Flexible Method to Fabricate Exsolution-Based Nanoparticle-Decorated Materials in Seconds.

Decorating metallic nanoparticles on the surface of oxide support is a promising approach to tailor the catalytic activity of perovskite. Here, for the first time using thermal shock to rapidly fabricate nanoparticle-decorated materials (NDMs) is proposed. Low-cost and size-tailorable carbon paper is used as the heating source during the thermal shock. It is reported that by thermal shock technique, only ≈13 s including heating and treating time is needed to fabricate the exsolution-based NDMs (the fastest method to date). Benefitted by the sufficiently provided driving force and the short treating time, as compared to the product prepared by the conventionally furnace-based method, higher particle density and smaller particle size of the exsolved catalysts are acquired for the thermal shock fabricated NDM, giving rise to a fascinating improvement (12-fold) of the electrochemical performance. This work develops a new technique to rapidly fabricate NDMs in an economic and high-throughput manner, profoundly improving the flexibility of the application of exsolution-based materials in electrochemical devices.