Activation Effect of Electrochemical Cycling on Gold Nanoparticles towards the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction in Sulfuric Acid

Abstract

A B S T R A C TThis article reports a study of electrochemical cycling effects on hydrogen evolution catalytic activity of gold nanoparticles in sulfuric acid. We found that after cycling within the double layer regime, up to 0.64 V vs RHE, there is a dramatic effect on the HER activity of gold nanoparticles: 128 mV drop of the overpotential, a decrease of 23 mV/dec for the Tafel slope as well as a nearly twenty times increase of the turn-over frequency (TOF). This enhanced activity is tentatively assigned to the formation of stepped like structures by the consecutive electrochemical cycling in the double layer region.

Gold-supported activated NiZn coatings: hydrogen evolution and corrosion studies

“…The reduction in the -η 100 at this electrode is 69% (with respect to the Cu/Ni/NiZn), which demonstrates that the presence of Au on the catalyst surface favours the hydrogen evolution kinetics and reduces the energy input for activating the HER [23,24]. However, the smallest Tafel slope appeared at the Au-modified electrode indicates a faster adsorption of H on the catalyst surface that leads to a faster HER rate [14,15]. Gold was Gold-supported activated NiZn coatings: HER and corrosion studies R. Solmaz reported to be a poor electrocatalyst for the HER because of the weak bond with H; namely, this metal is a poor substrate for hydrogen adsorption [12,24].…”

“…Gold was Gold-supported activated NiZn coatings: HER and corrosion studies R. Solmaz reported to be a poor electrocatalyst for the HER because of the weak bond with H; namely, this metal is a poor substrate for hydrogen adsorption [12,24]. However, the smallest Tafel slope appeared at the Au-modified electrode indicates a faster adsorption of H on the catalyst surface that leads to a faster HER rate [14,15]. Figure 2c shows the representative Nyquist plots of the working electrodes at À0.100-V overpotential.…”

“…In literature, there are only some studies on the hydrogen evolution activity of balk or nanostructured Au/or Au alloys [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. Promising results could be obtained by the Au-nanoparticles or clusters [14][15][16][17] because more active centres are available on these surfaces. Alloying Au with the other metals could also improve its hydrogen evolution activity and the stability [10,17].…”

Ultrathin, Porous and Oxygen Vacancies‐Enriched Ag/WO3−x Heterostructures for Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

“…After 5000 CV cycles, the microstructures of Ag/WO 3− x heterostructures show obvious change, in which many pores appeared in the WO 3− x nanosheets (Figure a,b). These pores may be formed via the surface atom reorientation caused by the electrochemical cycling process, which can be due to the induction of electric field . Moreover, the STEM‐EDX elemental mappings show that W, O and Ag elements are homogeneously distributed in the porous nanostructure (Figure c).…”

Electrochemical Cleaning Stability and Oxygen Reduction Reaction Activity of 1‐2 nm Dendrimer‐Encapsulated Au Nanoparticles

“…[9][10][11][12] It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that these types of pretreatments can significantly alter the properties of the catalysts under study. For example, following pretreatment, structured bimetallic NPs can undergo atomic rearrangements, [13][14][15][16] the crystal structure, shape, and facets can change, [4,[17][18][19] and atoms can undergo selective dissolution. [7,8,13,16,[20][21][22] Even for polycrystalline gold surfaces, the rate of anodic Au dissolution during potential cycling is highly dependent on the surface structure of the electrode.…”