A facile strategy for ultrasmall Pt NPs being partially-embedded in N-doped carbon nanosheet structure for efficient electrocatalysis

Abstract

A facile strategy is established for constructing composite nanostructure with ultrasmall Pt nanoparticles (NPs) of~2 nm in diameter being homogeneously embedded in N-doped carbon nanosheets. The strong coordination between Pt atoms in cisplatin and N atoms in pyrrole contributes to the robust embedding of Pt NP into the N-doped carbon nanosheets after annealing. Such a unique partially-embedding structure facilitates the active site exposure while stabilizing the ultrasmall Pt NPs, leading to the comparable electrochemical activities for hydrogen evolution and oxygen reduction reactions, and substantially improves durability performance compared to that of the state-of-the-art Pt/C (20 wt%).

Two-dimensional titanium carbide MXenes as efficient non-noble metal electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction

“…In the past decades, great efforts have been made to develop non-Pt family metals or even metal-free alternatives as ORR catalysts [1,2]. Especially, rapid progress has been achieved on metal-free ORR electrocatalysts, such as mesoporous carbons, heteroatom-doped graphene, and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Very recently, studies on electrocatalysis of transition metal carbides (MXenes) have attracted increasing attention [11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”

Puffing quaternary FexCoyNi1-x-yP nanoarray via kinetically controlled alkaline etching for robust overall water splitting

“…5b) indicates the high durability of FeCoNiP-PNAs for the overall water splitting under different current densities. When the cell voltage is set to be 2.5 V, the FeCoNiP-PNAs deliver excellent steady operation even at such a high current density of about 240 mA cm −2 , which is rarely observed in other recently reported state-of-theart bifunctional catalysts [34][35][36]. Note that the puffed structures are still well remained after the durability test under high current densities ( Fig.…”

Interface modulation of twinned PtFe nanoplates branched 3D architecture for oxygen reduction catalysis

“…By creating the unique structure of Pt-skin over Pt 3 Ni(1 1 1) single crystal through properly thermal treatment, nearly two orders of magnitude enhancement in ORR specific activity was achieved over the benchmark Pt/C [15,16]. The second strategy is by manipulating the architecture and morphology at nanoscale [9,[17][18][19], such as creating nanoparticles [20,21], nano-octahedron [22][23][24], nanowires [25][26][27][28], nanosheets [29,30], nanoframes [31,32] and nanodendrites [33][34][35], aiming to rationally controlling the exposed facets and surface coordination environment. The introduction of twin boundaries into the Pt-based nanocrystals was also reported to be beneficial to the electrocatalytic performance due to favorable surface strain distribution [14].…”