Roll-to-roll synthesis of multielement heterostructured catalysts

Heterostructured catalysts are essential for energy conversion and storage. However, scaling up their synthesis while maintaining precise control over diverse components is challenging. Here we introduce the difference in oxidation potential between metals and carbon as a thermodynamic factor for designing multielement heterostructures. A roll-to-roll carbothermal shock technology was developed to achieve one-step synthesis and continuous manufacturing of multielement heterostructured catalysts. A variety of heterostructured catalysts, from single elements to high-entropy alloys, oxides and their combinations, could be synthesized using this method. In addition, kinetic tunability enables precise control over elemental distributions and helps to identify distinct elemental regions to guide the fine-tailoring of heterostructured catalysts. As a proof of concept, we demonstrated rapid screening of PtCo@La–TiO 2 for alkaline hydrogen evolution. Our work proposes an advanced technology for rapid synthesis, screening and continuous production of multielement heterostructured catalysts.