title: Longitudinal Hierarchy Co3O4 Mesocrystals with High-dense Exposure Facets and Anisotropic Interfaces for Direct-Ethanol Fuel Cells.
abstract: Novel electrodes are needed for direct ethanol fuel cells with improved quality. Hierarchical engineering can produce catalysts composed of mesocrystals with many exposed active planes and multi-diffused voids. Here we report a simple, one-pot, hydrothermal method for fabricating Co3O4/carbon/substrate electrodes that provides control over the catalyst mesocrystal morphology (i.e., corn tubercle pellets or banana clusters oriented along nanotube domains, or layered lamina or multiple cantilevered sheets). These morphologies afforded catalysts with a high density of exposed active facets, a diverse range of mesopores in the cage interior, a window architecture, and vertical alignment to the substrate, which improved efficiency in an ethanol electrooxidation reaction compared with a conventional platinum/carbon electrode. On the atomic scale, the longitudinally aligned architecture of the Co3O4 mesocrystals resulted in exposed low- and high-index single and interface surfaces that had improved electron transport and diffusion compared with currently used electrodes.
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Research Center for Strategic Materials, 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, 305-0047, Japan.
authors.forename: Diab
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hassen
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Research Center for Strategic Materials, 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, 305-0047, Japan.|Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Waseda University, 3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjuku-Ku, Tokyo, 169-8555, Japan.
authors.forename: Sherif A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: El-Safty
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Research Center for Strategic Materials, 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, 305-0047, Japan.
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsuchiya
authors.affiliation: Dassault System Biovia K.K., Materials Science Enterprise, ThinkPark Tower, 2-1-1 Osaki, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, 141-6020, Japan.
authors.forename: Abhijit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chatterjee
authors.affiliation: Department of Computing, Engineering and Technology, University of Sunderland, Edinburgh Building, Chester Road, Sunderland, SR1 3SD, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Ahmed
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Elmarakbi
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Research Center for Strategic Materials, 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, 305-0047, Japan.
authors.forename: Mohamed A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Shenashen
authors.affiliation: Center for Research in Isotopes and Environmental Dynamics, Tsukuba University, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8572, Japan.
authors.forename: Masaru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sakai