A great achievement by Daniel during his Ph.D. work: We unveil a path in molten salts to transition metal silicoborides through structural transformations driven by boron-based covalent bonds. Specific charge transfer between atoms provide guidelines to design corrosion-resistant and Earth-abundant water oxidation electrocatalysts. Among a range of methods, we made extensive use of synchrotron-based in situ XRD in molten salts.
Covalent Transition Metal Borosilicides: Reaction Pathways in Molten Salts for Water Oxidation Electrocatalysis, D. Janisch, F. Igoa Saldaña, E. De Rolland Dalon, C. VM Inocêncio, Y. Song, P.-O. Autran, A. Miche, S. Casale, D. Portehault, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 146, 21824 (2024)