Enhancing by Weakening: Electrooxidation of Methanol on Pt3Co and Pt Nanocubes

Recent Approaches for Cleaving the C─C Bond During Ethanol Electro-Oxidation Reaction

Direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs) play an indispensable role in the cyclic utilization of carbon resources due to its high volumetric energy density, high efficiency, and environmental benign character. However, owing to the chemically stable carbon-carbon (C─C) bond of ethanol, its incomplete electrooxidation at the anode severely inhibits the energy and power density output of DEFCs. The efficiency of C─C bond cleaving on the state-of-the-art Pt or Pd catalysts is reported as low as 7.5%. Recently, tremendous efforts are devoted to this field, and some effective strategies are put forward to facilitate the cleavage of the C─C bond. It is the right time to summarize the major breakthroughs in ethanol electrooxidation reaction. In this review, some optimization strategies including constructing core-shell nanostructure with alloying effect, doping other metal atoms in Pt and Pd catalysts, engineering composite catalyst with interface synergism, introducing cascade catalytic sites, and so on, are systematically summarized. In addition, the catalytic mechanism as well as the correlations between the catalyst structure and catalytic efficiency are further discussed. Finally, the prevailing limitations and feasible improvement directions for ethanol electrooxidation are proposed.

Surfactant-Free Monodispersed Pd Nanoparticles Template for Core-Shell Pd@PdPt Nanoparticles as Electrocatalyst towards Methanol Oxidation Reaction (MOR)

An eco-friendly two-step synthetic method for synthesizing Pd@PdPt/CNTs nanoparticles was introduced and studied for the methanol oxidation reaction. The Pd@PdPt alloy core-shell structure was synthesized by preparing a surfactant-free monodispersed Pd/CNTs precursor through the hydrolysis of tetrachloropalladate (II) ion ([PdCl₄]²⁻) in the presence of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and the subsequent hydrogen reduction and followed by a galvanic replacement reaction. This method opens up an eco-friendly, practical, and straightforward route for synthesizing monometallic or bimetallic nanoparticles with a clean surfactant-free electrocatalytic surface. It is quite promising for large-scale preparation. The Pd@PdPt/CNTs electrocatalyst demonstrated a high specific mass activity for methanol oxidation (400.2 mAmg_Pt⁻¹) and excellent stability towards direct methanol oxidation compared to its monometallic counterparts.

Synthesis of raspberry-like antimony-platinum (SbPt) nanoparticles as highly active electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction

Binary transition metals can facilitate the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) through the synergistic integration of different electrochemical properties. To determine binary transition metals that are highly active, Greely et al. conducted a simulation of 256 different binary transition metals. They demonstrated that BiPt, PtRu, AsPt, SbPt, BiRh, RhRe, PtRe, AsRu, IrRu, RhRu, IrRe, and PtRh could be used as efficient electrocatalysts for HER. However, only few of them are synthesized and used as electrocatalysts. In this work, we report the synthesis of the raspberry-like antimony-platinum (SbPt) nanoparticles (NPs) via a colloidal nanocrystal synthesis. These NPs exhibited efficient activity with a low overpotential of 27 mV to reach 10 mA cm^-2 in acidic media. We conducted long-term durability test for 90,000 s under an applied voltage of 0.5 V (vs. RHE) and cycling tests of over 10,000 cycles under an applied voltage of 0.1 to -0.5 V (vs. RHE). The high activity exhibited by the raspberry-like SbPt NPs may be due to the following reasons: (1) the raspberry-like SbPt NPs exhibited versatile active exposed (110), (100), (101), and (012) facets as efficient HER catalysts, and (2) as confirmed by both the density functional theory (DFT) simulation and experimental results, the presence of Sb 3d subsurface broadened the Pt surface d-band, which caused synergistic effects on water splitting. In summary, synthesis of the new colloidal raspberry-like SbPt NPs is essential to elucidate the fundamental properties of the nanomaterial and nanostructure design. This study could facilitate the development of Pt-group materials that can be used as HER catalysts.

Strain Regulation to Optimize the Acidic Water Oxidation Performance of Atomic-Layer IrOx

Strain regulation has become an important strategy to tune the surface chemistry and optimize the catalytic performance of nanocatalysts. Herein, the construction of atomic-layer IrO_x on IrCo nanodendrites with tunable IrO bond length by compressive strain effect for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in acidic environment is demonstrated. Evidenced from in situ extended X-ray absorption fine structure, it is shown that the compressive strain of the IrO_x layer on the IrCo nanodendrites decreases gradually from 2.51% to the unstrained state with atomic layer growth (from ≈2 to ≈9 atomic layers of IrO_x ), resulting in the variation of the IrO bond length from shortened 1.94 Å to normal 1.99 Å. The ≈3 atomic-layer IrO_x on IrCo nanodendrites with an IrO bond length of 1.96 Å (1.51% strain) exhibits the optimal OER activity compared to the higher-strained (2.51%, ≈2 atomic-layer IrO_x ) and unstrained (>6 atomic-layer IrO_x ) counterparts, with an overpotential of only 247 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 . Density functional theory calculations reveal that the precisely tuned compressive strain effect balances the adsorbate-substrate interaction and facilitates the rate-determining step to form HOO*, thus assuring the best performance of the three atomic-layer IrO_x for OER.

Facile Synthesis of Composition-Controlled Graphene-Supported PtPd Alloy Nanocatalysts and Their Applications in Methanol Electro-Oxidation and Lithium-Oxygen Batteries

A new and simple approach is reported for the synthesis of uniformly dispersed PtPd alloy nanocatalysts supported on graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) (PtPd-GNPs) through the introduction of bifunctional materials, which can modify the GNP surface and simultaneously reduce metal ions. With the use of poly(4-styrenesulfonic acid), poly(vinyl pyrrolidone), poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride), and poly(vinyl alcohol) as bifunctional materials, PtPd-GNPs can be produced through a procedure that is far simpler than previously reported methods. The as-prepared nanocrystals on GNPs clearly exhibit uniform PtPd alloy structures of around 2 nm in size, which are strongly anchored and well distributed on the GNP sheets. The Pt/Pd atomic ratio and loading density of the nanocrystals on the GNPs are controlled easily by changing the metal precursor feed ratio and the mass ratio of GNP to the metal precursor, respectively. As a result of the synergism between Pt and Pd, the as-prepared PtPd-GNPs exhibit markedly enhanced electrocatalytic performance during methanol electro-oxidation compared with monometallic Pt-GNP or commercially available Pt/C. Furthermore, the PtPd-GNP nanocatalysts also show greatly enhanced catalytic activity toward the oxygen reduction/evolution reaction in a lithium-oxygen (Li-O₂ ) process, resulting in greatly improved cycling stability of a Li-O₂ battery.

A silicon photoanode for efficient ethanol oxidation under alkaline conditions

A Pt/ZrO₂/n-Si electrode has been employed as the anode for the EOR, exhibiting improved EOR activity and durability under solar illumination.

Mechanisms for enhanced performance of platinum-based electrocatalysts in proton exchange membrane fuel cells

As a new generation of power sources, fuel cells have shown great promise for application in transportation. However, the expensive catalyst materials, especially the cathode catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), severely limit the widespread commercialization of fuel cells. Therefore, this review article focuses on platinum (Pt)-based electrocatalysts for ORR with better catalytic performance and lower cost. Major breakthroughs in the improvement of activity and durability of electrocatalysts are discussed. Specifically, on one hand, the enhanced activity of Pt has been achieved through crystallographic control, ligand effect, or geometric effect; on the other hand, improved durability of Pt-based cathode catalysts has been realized by means of the incorporation of another noble metal or the morphological control of nanostructures. Furthermore, based on these improvement mechanisms, rationally designed Pt-based nanoparticles are summarized in terms of different synthetic strategies such as wet-chemical synthesis, Pt-skin catalysts, electrochemically dealloyed nanomaterials, and Pt-monolayer deposition. These nanoparticulate electrocatalysts show greatly enhanced catalytic performance towards ORR, aiming not only to outperform the commercial Pt/C, but also to exceed the US Department of Energy 2015 technical target ($30/kW and 5000 h).

Polyallylamine-directed green synthesis of platinum nanocubes. Shape and electronic effect codependent enhanced electrocatalytic activity

The synthesis of Pt nanocrystals with controlled size and morphology has drawn enormous interest due to their particular catalytic activity. We present a facile and green hydrothermal method for synthesizing monodisperse Pt nanocubes (Pt-NCs) with polyallylamine hydrochloride (PAH) as a complex-forming agent, capping agent and facet-selective agent, and formaldehyde as a reductant. The formation mechanism, particle size and surface composition of the Pt-NCs were investigated by Ultraviolet and visible spectroscopy (UV-vis), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), etc. In the proposed PAH-K(2)PtCl(4)-HCHO synthesis system, the raw material could be reutilized to re-synthesize the Pt-NCs, and the particle size of the Pt-NCs could be readily controlled by the reduction rate of the Pt(II) species in the Pt(II)-PAH complex. After UV/Ozone and electrochemical cleaning, the residual PAH on the Pt-NC surfaces still strongly influenced the d-band centre of Pt due to the strong N-Pt interaction. The as-prepared 6 nm Pt-NCs showed superior electrocatalytic activity (mass activity and specific activity) and stability towards the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in both H(2)SO(4) and HClO(4) electrolytes compared to the commercial E-TEK Pt black, owing to the combination of the facets effect and electronic effect.