As an ideal chemical fuel, energy carrier and energy storage tool, hydrogen can help resolve energy crises and improve environmental protection. Hydrogen production by catalytic reforming of methanol steam is an important industrial hydrogen production method, which can be applied to fuel cells and has great potential in the transportation field. Seeking a simple process, no precious metals, green, non-toxic, low-temperature and high-efficiency catalyst is the research hotspot of methanol steam reforming to produce hydrogen.

Quasicrystals are a new form of matter discovered in the 1980s. They have long-range quasi-periodic order and rotational symmetry that traditional crystals do not possess. Quasicrystals have excellent properties such as wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and high hardness, but they also have great brittleness. Due to the brittleness of quasicrystals, the industrial applications of quasicrystals are limited, especially as structural materials.

He Zhanbing, University of Science and Technology Beijing, and others did the opposite. They used the brittleness of quasicrystals and therefore easy pulverization to prepare Al63Cu25Fe12 quasicrystal powders of about 50 microns, and used this as a precursor to successfully develop them using a dealloying method. A nanocomposite catalyst with controllable nano particles covering a porous matrix has been developed.

The catalyst exhibits excellent low-temperature catalytic performance in the methanol steam reforming hydrogen production reaction. For example, when the temperature is as low as 220°C, the methanol conversion rate is still as high as 90%, which is better than most industrial catalysts at the same temperature. Catalytic performance, showing good industrial application potential.

They analyzed that the copper element contained in the quasicrystal is the catalytic active center, which plays a key role in the catalytic reaction, and the iron oxide plays a role in stabilizing the active center. Because the preparation process of the catalyst is simple, no precious metals, green, non-toxic, low temperature and high efficiency, it is an ideal methanol steam reforming hydrogen production catalyst. He Zhanbing et al. turned the shortcomings of quasicrystalline materials into a usable advantage. This research idea of ​​"turning decay into magic" has brought opportunities for the industrial application of quasicrystalline materials.

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The corresponding author of the thesis, Professor He Zhanbing, under the tutelage of the pioneer of quasicrystalline research in my country, Mr. Guo Kexing, has long been committed to the in-depth systematic research of quasicrystalline materials and has achieved a series of research results. like:

1. A new solid material form has been discovered. This new material form is related to the structure of the aluminum-based tenth order quasicrystal, which is formed by inlaying aperiodic structural blocks between periodically arranged structural blocks. It has the periodic translation symmetry of traditional crystal materials and the quasi-periodicality of quasi-crystals at the same time. It subtly integrates the contradictions between crystal and quasi-crystal structures into this new solid state of matter, Acta Cryst. A, 76, 137 –144 (2020).

2. A new quasi-crystalline quasi-unit cell was discovered experimentally. This not only provides convenience for analyzing the structure of quasicrystals, but also provides experimental support for explaining the growth of quasicrystals. Answered "Can quasicrystals have a unit cell like traditional crystals?" This is an important scientific question in the field of quasicrystal research. The result was published on Nature Communications 11, 6209 (2020) and was selected as the featured paper of Editors’ Hightlights.

3. A new alloy design idea was proposed, and the nearly equal atomic ratio high entropy tenth order quasicrystals were successfully prepared, which filled the gap of no tenth order quasicrystals in the high-entropy alloy phase structure family. The high-entropy standard proposed by this study The crystal design concept also provides new ideas for the design of new high-entropy quasicrystals