Issue 22, 2025

Boosting hydrogen evolution via flexoelectric catalysis in gradient F-doped hydroxyapatite nanowires

Abstract

The emergence of flexoelectric effect, which refers to the linear electromechanical coupling between strain gradient and charge polarization in a wide range of materials, suggests a new catalytic mechanism to activate chemical bonds and reactions. Although pioneering studies have shown the remarkable potential for flexoelectric catalysis in a few scenarios, the lack of green, cheap, bio-compatible, and high-efficiency flexoelectric catalysts acts as a major barrier to its expanding applications. In this study, we report the effective design of a high-performance flexoelectric catalyst by simultaneous structural and compositional engineering on hydroxyapatite, a ubiquitous mineral and a well-known biomaterial. By synergizing atomic-scale and nanoscale strain gradients (which are respectively induced by surface lattice doping and geometry engineering) in F-doped hydroxyapatite nanowires (F-HAP NWs), the flexoelectric response together with the catalytic performance of the material are drastically improved, leading to a high hydrogen generation rate (322.7 μmol g−1 h−1) in pure water. The findings highlight the potential of F-HAP NWs in flexoelectric catalysis and offer new insights into mechanocatalytic and electrochemical processes in biological systems.

Graphical abstract: Boosting hydrogen evolution via flexoelectric catalysis in gradient F-doped hydroxyapatite nanowires

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
26 Jan 2025
Accepted
26 Apr 2025
First published
02 May 2025
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2025,16, 9905-9912

Boosting hydrogen evolution via flexoelectric catalysis in gradient F-doped hydroxyapatite nanowires

Y. Zhang, J. Huang, L. Jiang, J. Qiang, Z. Zhang, Z. Liu, Y. Liu, T. Tian, Z. Wang and L. Fei, Chem. Sci., 2025, 16, 9905 DOI: 10.1039/D5SC00710K

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