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Versatile Technique to Produce a Hierarchical Design in Nanoporous Gold
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Assembling Highly Coordinated Pt Sites on Nanoporous Gold for Efficient Oxygen Electroreduction.
Qiwen Zhang1, Jia He1, Ruijie Guo1
1Tianjin Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Porous Materials, Institute for New Energy Materials & Low-Carbon Technologies , Tianjin University of Technology , Tianjin 300384 , P. R. China.
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
|October 27, 2018
Summary
Researchers developed a new catalyst using nanoporous gold (NPG) and platinum (Pt) to boost oxygen reduction reaction activity. This novel structure significantly enhances catalytic performance, offering a more efficient pathway for electrochemical applications.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Electrochemistry
- Nanotechnology
Background:
- High coordination number (HCN) platinum (Pt) sites are crucial for efficient oxygen reduction reactions (ORR).
- Achieving a high density of HCN Pt sites while minimizing Pt usage remains a significant challenge in catalyst design.
- Traditional nanoparticle catalysts often lack a sufficient proportion of HCN sites.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a novel catalyst structure with a high density of HCN Pt sites for enhanced ORR activity.
- To utilize nanoporous gold (NPG) as a substrate to inherit and amplify HCN Pt characteristics.
- To investigate the effect of NPG ligament size and additional gold deposition on catalytic performance.
Main Methods:
- Epitaxial deposition of a platinum monolayer onto nanoporous gold (NPG) substrates.
- Fabrication of NPG with varying ligament sizes.
- Characterization of HCN Pt site density and distribution.
- Electrochemical testing of catalyst activity for the oxygen reduction reaction.
Main Results:
- NPG-Pt catalysts with smaller ligament sizes exhibited higher HCN Pt atom density.
- These catalysts showed a 5.2-fold increase in specific activity and an 18.7-fold increase in mass activity compared to commercial Pt/C.
- Further deposition of gold atoms onto the NPG-Pt surface enhanced HCN Pt exposure, leading to a 6.9-fold specific activity and 19.1-fold mass activity increase over Pt/C.
Conclusions:
- Nanoporous gold is an effective scaffold for creating high-density HCN Pt sites.
- Optimizing NPG structure and incorporating additional gold can significantly boost ORR performance.
- This approach offers a promising strategy for developing highly active and cost-effective ORR electrocatalysts.
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