Virus-templated Pt–Ni(OH)2 nanonetworks for enhanced electrocatalytic reduction of water

Abstract

Clean hydrogen production via water electrolysis is incumbent upon the development of highperforming hydrogen evolution reaction electrocatalysts. Despite decades of commercial maturity, however, alkaline water electrolyzers continue to suffer from limitations in electrocatalytic activity and stability, even with noble metal catalysts. In recent years, combining platinum with oxophilic materials, such as metal hydroxides, has shown great promise for improving performance potentially by enabling stronger water dissociation at the surface of electrocatalysts. In this work, we leveraged the nanoscopic proportions and surface programmability of the filamentous M13 bacteriophage in the design, synthesis, and exceptional performance of 3D nanostructured biotemplated electrocatalysts for alkaline hydrogen evolution. We developed a facile synthesis method for phage-templated, Pt-Ni(OH)2 nanonetworks, relying on scalable techniques like electroless deposition and air oxidation. After optimization of the platinum content, our materials display-4.9 A mg-1 Pt at-70 mV versus the reversible hydrogen electrode, the highest reported mass activity in 1 M KOH to date, and undergo minimal changes in overpotential under galvanostatic operation at-10 mA cm-2 geo. Looking forward, the performance of these catalysts suggests that biotemplating nanostructures with M13 bacteriophage offers an interesting new route for developing high-performing electrocatalysts.

Virus‐Templated Nickel Phosphide Nanofoams as Additive‐Free, Thin‐Film Li‐Ion Microbattery Anodes

“…Unlike similar support materials, such as carbon nanotubes, virus particles do not require further surface functionalization before subsequent synthesis steps. We chose the EEAE clone, as it has been shown to bind well to divalent metal cations in a number of different applications . Taking advantage of this binding affinity, the virus hydrogels were metallized using an electroless deposition (ELD) bath with sodium hypophosphite acting as the reducing agent.…”

“…M13 Bacteriophage Growth and Culturing : Concentrated stocks of metal‐cation‐binding EEAE M13 phage were prepared via the infection of XL1‐Blue Escherichia coli bacteria (Agilent Technologies) with M13, amplification in a general electric WAVE Bioreactor 20/50 system, and purification via hollow‐fiber filtration and polyethylene glycol‐NaCl precipitation using previously reported methods …”

“…M13 Bacteriophage Growth and Culturing: Concentrated stocks of metal-cation-binding EEAE M13 phage were prepared via the infection of XL1-Blue Escherichia coli bacteria (Agilent Technologies) with M13, amplification in a general electric WAVE Bioreactor 20/50 system, and purification via hollow-fiber filtration and polyethylene glycol-NaCl precipitation using previously reported methods. [29,30] Synthesis of Virus-Templated Nanofoams: Nanofoams were prepared by adapting previously reported methods. [29,30] Briefly, 10 µL of 2.0 × 10 13 plaque-forming units (pfu) mL −1 M13 was pipetted onto Ti foil (0.127 mm thick, 99.99%, Fisher Scientific, previously punched into 1 cm diameter discs and washed with ethanol and acetone).…”

“…[29,30] Synthesis of Virus-Templated Nanofoams: Nanofoams were prepared by adapting previously reported methods. [29,30] Briefly, 10 µL of 2.0 × 10 13 plaque-forming units (pfu) mL −1 M13 was pipetted onto Ti foil (0.127 mm thick, 99.99%, Fisher Scientific, previously punched into 1 cm diameter discs and washed with ethanol and acetone). The Ti foil substrate was then placed droplet-side down onto a static glutaraldehyde solution (50/50 (w/w), Sigma-Aldrich).…”

“…We chose the EEAE clone, as it has been shown to bind well to divalent metal cations in a number of different applications. [28,30] Taking advantage of this binding affinity, the virus hydrogels were metallized using an electroless deposition (ELD) bath with sodium hypophosphite acting as the reducing agent. Unlike other common reducing agents, such as dimethylamine borane, hydrazine, or sodium borohydride, sodium hypophosphite can spontaneously codeposit phosphorus as a side reaction to the intended metal reduction.…”