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Updated: Feb 25, 2026
Simple Methods for the Preparation of Non-noble Metal Bulk-electrodes for Electrocatalytic Applications
Published on: June 21, 2017
Potential-Cycling Synthesis of Single Platinum Atoms for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution in Neutral Media
Lihan Zhang1, Lili Han1, Haoxuan Liu1
1Center for Electron Microscopy, TUT-FEI Joint Laboratory, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Porous Materials, Institute for New Energy Materials & Low-Carbon Technologies, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, 300384, China.
Abstract:
Single-atom catalysts (SACs) have exhibited high activities for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysis in acidic or alkaline media, when they are used with binders on cathodes. However, to date, no SACs have been reported for the HER electrocatalysis in neutral media. We demonstrate a potential-cycling method to synthesize a catalyst comprising single Pt atoms on CoP-based nanotube arrays supported by a Ni foam, termed PtSA-NT-NF. This binder-free catalyst is centimeter-scale and scalable. It is directly used as HER cathodes, whose performances at low and high current densities in phosphate buffer solutions (pH 7.2) are comparable to and better than, respectively, those of commercial Pt/C. The Pt mass activity of PtSA-NT-NF is 4 times of that of Pt/C, and its electrocatalytic stability is also better than that of Pt/C. This work provides a large-scale production strategy for binder-free Pt SAC electrodes for efficient HER in neutral media.
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