Laboratory of Nanomaterials, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China.
ACS Nano. 2012 Sep 25;6(9):8288-97. doi: 10.1021/nn302984x. Epub 2012 Sep 4.
Non-Pt noble metal clusters like Au clusters are believed to be promising high performance catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the cathode of fuel cells, but they still suffer big problems during the catalysis reactions, such as a large amount of the capping agents being on the surface and easy occurrence of dissolution and aggregation. To overcome these obstacles, here, we present a novel and general strategy to grow ultrafine Au clusters and other metal (Pt, Pd) clusters on the reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets without any additional protecting molecule or reductant. Compared with the currently generally adopted nanocatalysts, including commercial Pt/C, rGO sheets, Au nanoparticle/rGO hybrids, and thiol-capped Au clusters of the same sizes, the as-synthesized Au cluster/rGO hybrids display an impressive eletrocatalytic performance toward ORR, for instance, high onset potential, superior methanol tolerance, and excellent stability.
非 Pt 贵金属簇，如 Au 簇，被认为是燃料电池阴极氧还原反应 (ORR) 的高性能催化剂，但它们在催化反应中仍存在许多问题，例如表面有大量的封端剂，容易发生溶解和聚集。为了克服这些障碍，在这里，我们提出了一种新的通用策略，即在没有任何额外保护分子或还原剂的情况下，在还原氧化石墨烯 (rGO) 片上生长超细 Au 簇和其他金属 (Pt、Pd) 簇。与目前普遍采用的纳米催化剂相比，包括商业 Pt/C、rGO 片、Au 纳米粒子/rGO 杂化物以及相同尺寸的巯基封端 Au 簇，所合成的 Au 簇/rGO 杂化物对 ORR 表现出令人印象深刻的电催化性能，例如，高起始电位、优异的甲醇耐受性和出色的稳定性。
