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Updated: Jun 12, 2025

Synthesis of Metal Nanoparticles Supported on Carbon Nanotube with Doped Co and N Atoms and its Catalytic Applications in Hydrogen Production
Published on: December 6, 2021
Tuning Carbon-Supported Metal Single-Atom Catalysts toward Hydrogen Isotope Separation by Water Electrolysis
Jingsong Xu1, Tao Shao1, Ruidong Liu1
1Science and Technology on Surface Physics and Chemistry Laboratory, Jiangyou, Sichuan 621908, China.
Abstract:
Water electrolysis is an attractive technique for hydrogen isotope separation in liquid water, and the development of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts with a high separation factor and high activity is of crucial importance to minimize energy consumption. Herein, we prepare four kinds of single-atom catalysts (SACs) with different metal centers (Pt, Pd, Ni, and Co) on Ar plasma-treated graphite foil (AGF) via one-step plasma processing and compared their performance toward hydrogen separation during HER. The resultant Pt1/AGF electrode exhibits a high catalytic activity toward HER with a low overpotential of 0.032 V at 10 mA cm-2 and a high separation factor of 6.21 for hydrogen and deuterium separation, superior to other SAC counterparts or Pt/C catalysts. DFT calculations ascribe the high separation performance to the lower difference of zero-point energies of adsorbed hydrogen isotopes on the Pt-C4 structure, which leads to a larger difference between hydrogen and deuterium adsorption free energies. This work paves the way for the design and application of SACs for hydrogen isotope separation via water electrolysis.
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