{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,27]],"date-time":"2026-07-27T14:37:19Z","timestamp":1785163039266,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,27]],"date-time":"2026-02-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1772150400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Materials"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This work investigates the structural evolution and electrocatalytic activity of the amorphous metal alloy Al87Y4Gd1Ni4Fe4 during short-term annealing and its effect on the kinetics of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in 1 M KOH. It is shown that a 5 min heat treatment at 647 \u00b1 2 K initiates controlled nanocrystallisation with the formation of AlFe2Ni, GdFe2 and Al(X) (X = Gd, Ni, Y, Fe) phases, which are uniformly dispersed in the amorphous matrix. According to XRD, DSC and HRTEM data, it was established that the formation of intermetallic nanodomains leads to a decrease in charge transfer energy barriers and the appearance of additional active centres of H* adsorption. Electrochemical studies have shown an increase in cathode current density, an increase in i0 by 2\u20133 orders of magnitude, and a decrease in Rct after annealing, confirming the improvement in HER kinetics. Potentiostatic tests showed an increase in the volumetric hydrogen evolution rate from 35.1 to 106.0 mL\/(g\u00b7min) during the first immersion and up to 217.9 mL\/(g\u00b7min) during reuse. SEM\/EDS analysis revealed surface reconstruction and Ni enrichment after HER, which contributes to the acceleration of the H* recombination stage. The synergy of the amorphous matrix and nanophases ensures high electrocatalytic activity and stability of the system, making annealed AMA a promising low-cost catalyst for alkaline hydrogen evolution.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ma19050901","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,5]],"date-time":"2026-03-05T14:19:21Z","timestamp":1772720361000},"page":"901","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Short-Term Annealing Effect on Hydrogen Evolution Activity of Amorphous Al87Y4Gd1Ni4Fe4"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Khrystyna","family":"Khrushchyk","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Kyryla i Mefodiya St. 6, 79005 Lviv, Ukraine"},{"name":"Institute of Materials Engineering, University of Silesia in Katowice, 75 Pu\u0142ku Piechoty 1A St., 41-500 Chorz\u00f3w, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4855-9538","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Julian","family":"Kubisztal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Materials Engineering, University of Silesia in Katowice, 75 Pu\u0142ku Piechoty 1A St., 41-500 Chorz\u00f3w, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5382-2038","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Krzysztof","family":"Anio\u0142ek","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Materials Engineering, University of Silesia in Katowice, 75 Pu\u0142ku Piechoty 1A St., 41-500 Chorz\u00f3w, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5445-8530","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pawe\u0142","family":"\u015awiec","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Materials Engineering, University of Silesia in Katowice, 75 Pu\u0142ku Piechoty 1A St., 41-500 Chorz\u00f3w, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2388-8036","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ma\u0142gorzata","family":"Karolus","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Materials Engineering, University of Silesia in Katowice, 75 Pu\u0142ku Piechoty 1A St., 41-500 Chorz\u00f3w, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7553-2202","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lidiya","family":"Boichyshyn","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Kyryla i Mefodiya St. 6, 79005 Lviv, Ukraine"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anton","family":"Nosenko","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Metal Science of Eutectic and Rapidly Hardened Alloys, G. V. Kurdyumov Institute for Metal Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 36 Academician Vernadsky Boulevard, UA-03142 Kyiv, Ukraine"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Veronika","family":"Pihel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Kyryla i Mefodiya St. 6, 79005 Lviv, Ukraine"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1442","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijhydene.2024.07.262","article-title":"Challenges in photocatalytic hydrogen evolution: Importance of photocatalysts and photocatalytic reactors","volume":"81","author":"Abhishek","year":"2024","journal-title":"Int. J. Hydrogen Energy"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rasheed, T., Ahmad, R., and Arishi, A. (2025). 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