Emerging carbon shell-encapsulated metal nanocatalysts for fuel cells and water electrolysis

Abstract

Carbon shell encapsulated metal nanoparticles (M@C) are key materials for fuel cell and water electrolysis applications. This review highlights the current challenges and future prospects of M@C electrocatalysts.

Recent Advances in Carbon‐Supported Noble‐Metal Electrocatalysts for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction: Syntheses, Structures, and Properties

“…For example, a Pt@C core-shell catalyst was developed, in which graphitic-and pyridine-N on the carbon shell together with Pt nanoparticles served as the active sites for HER. [167,168] Benefited from this specific structure, the carbon shell could not only effectively prevent the dissolution and agglomeration of Pt core, but also allow the facile transport of reactants, improving mechanical stability and minimizing the loss of catalytic activity. In addition, it was also found that the peeling-off issue would become more serious if the interaction between catalyst and support was weaker than the interfacial adhesion force between the catalyst and the bubble.…”

Carbon Shell‐Encapsulated Metal Alloy Catalysts with Pt‐Rich Surfaces for Selective Hydrogen Oxidation Reaction

“…As an alternative strategy, our research group has intensively studied the fabrication of carbon shell-encapsulated metal nanoparticles for fuel cell applications. [25][26][27][28] The ultrathin carbon shells formed on metal nanoparticles generally have a robust structure that can withstand structural degradation for thousands of potential cycles. However, the development of fine-control technology of carbon shell structures for electrochemical applications remains a challenge.…”

Activity of Carbon-Encapsulated Ni12-Xfexp Catalysts for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction: Combination of High Activity and Stability

“…On the other hand, the electronic properties of the carbon shell can be modulated by the metallic nanoparticle cores, allowing for the binding energies of reaction intermediates on the carbon surface to be tuned. In some cases, carbon encapsulated metal nanoparticles exhibit high activity simultaneously against a variety of electrochemical reactions (e.g., HER and OER), demonstrating a bi-functional catalyst [47][48][49].…”

“…Different methods, such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD), the polymer coating method, the solvothermal method, and the hightemperature pyrolytic method, have been utilized to form a thin carbon shell to encapsulate metal nanoparticles. Among all these, the solvothermal method has been given the most interest due to several advantages including a low temperature process ( < 300 • C), morphology tuning, time-efficient, possible scale-up, possibility of engineering the carbon shell, and so forth [47].…”

“…Recently, Jung and co-workers [47,51] have reported the synthesis of various transition metal nanoparticles encapsulated by carbon shell through the solvothermal method, which involves decomposing metal acetylacetonates precursors in organic solvents with surfactants under inert atmospheres at temperatures below 300 • C, after which the products are processed and subjected to annealing under different gas conditions to yield different carbon encapsulated metal structures. The carbon layer formed through the annealing step, in which the carbon atoms absorbed inside the lattice of the metal alloys diffuse to the nanoparticle surface, producing a mono or bilayer-level uniform carbon shell at the sub-nm scale.…”