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Published on: December 6, 2021
PtCo-excavated rhombic dodecahedral nanocrystals for efficient electrocatalysis
Cong Shen1, Xuemin Li1, Yajing Wei1
1State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces & Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University Xiamen 361005 P. R. China yqjiang@xmu.edu.cn zzxie@xmu.edu.cn +86-592-2183360.
New platinum-cobalt (PtCo) nanocrystals with an excavated structure show significantly enhanced catalytic activity for oxygen reduction and methanol oxidation reactions, outperforming commercial catalysts.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Electrochemistry
- Nanotechnology
Background:
- Platinum (Pt)-based catalysts are crucial for reactions like oxygen reduction (ORR) and small fuel molecule oxidation.
- Optimizing Pt atomic utilization in electrocatalysts requires advanced morphology design of Pt-based alloy nanocrystals (NCs) for accessible active sites.
Purpose of the Study:
- To synthesize and characterize novel PtCo-excavated rhombic dodecahedral (ERD) nanocrystals (NCs).
- To evaluate the electrocatalytic performance of these PtCo ERD NCs for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and methanol oxidation.
Main Methods:
- Synthesis of PtCo ERD NCs via a facile wet chemical method involving self-assembly of ultrathin nanosheets.
- Morphology control by adjusting formaldehyde content and Co/Pt precursor molar ratio.
- Electrocatalytic performance testing for ORR and methanol oxidation, comparing with commercial Pt/C.
Main Results:
- PtCo ERD NCs/C catalyst demonstrated ~12x higher specific activity and ~6x higher mass activity for ORR compared to commercial Pt/C.
- For methanol oxidation, PtCo ERD NCs/C exhibited ~6x higher specific activity and ~2x higher mass activity than commercial Pt/C.
- The enhanced performance is attributed to the unique excavated structure and the PtCo alloy composition.
Conclusions:
- The developed PtCo ERD NCs represent a promising electrocatalyst material with significantly improved efficiency.
- The excavated morphology and alloy composition are key factors for enhancing catalytic activity in ORR and methanol oxidation.
