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Mastering the surface strain of platinum catalysts for efficient electrocatalysis
Tianou He1,2, Weicong Wang1,2, Fenglei Shi3
1State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
Nature
|October 7, 2021
Summary
Strain engineering of platinum (Pt) catalysts using palladium nanocubes allows precise tuning of electrocatalytic activity for reactions like methanol oxidation and hydrogen evolution.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Electrochemistry
- Catalysis
Background:
- Platinum (Pt) is a key electrocatalyst in sustainable energy systems, with its activity influenced by electronic structure and lattice strain.
- Exploiting strain in Pt catalysts, particularly using core-shell structures, has improved performance, but detailed strain-activity correlations for specific reactions remain challenging to establish.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a method for precisely controlling lattice strain in ultrathin platinum shells on palladium-based nanocubes.
- To investigate the strain-activity correlations for methanol oxidation and hydrogen evolution reactions on these engineered Pt catalysts.
Main Methods:
- Depositing ultrathin Pt shells on palladium-based nanocubes.
- Inducing tunable lattice strain in the Pt(100) shell via phosphorization and dephosphorization of the Pd core, adjusting strain from -5.1% to 5.9%.
- Evaluating the electrocatalytic performance for methanol oxidation and hydrogen evolution reactions under varying strain conditions.
Main Results:
- Achieved precise control over lattice strain in Pt shells, ranging from -5.1% to 5.9%.
- Demonstrated that strain significantly tunes the electrocatalytic activity of Pt shells.
- Observed distinct strain-activity relationships: an M-shaped curve for methanol oxidation and a volcano-shaped curve for hydrogen evolution.
Conclusions:
- The developed strain-engineering approach enables fine-tuning of Pt catalyst performance for specific reactions.
- This method provides a pathway to screen and optimize lattice strain for enhanced performance of Pt and potentially other metal catalysts.
- Understanding these strain-activity correlations is crucial for designing next-generation electrocatalysts for energy conversion.
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