Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials & Devices, Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, P. R. China.
Nanoscale. 2017 Jul 20;9(28):10138-10144. doi: 10.1039/c7nr03962j.
Cost-effective catalysts for electrocatalytic water splitting play a key role in the renewable energy research. Although Pt has been regarded as the best catalyst, its wide applications have been impeded by its high cost and scarce natural abundance. Therefore, decreasing the Pt usage for electrocatalyst design is significant toward the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, flower-like Pt nanocrystals were loaded on the surface of nitrogen-doped graphene using Si nanowires as the sacrificial template. The experimental results showed that the optimal Pt nanocrystals/N-doped graphene with superior HER activity and excellent stability only has a low Pt loading of 5.0 wt%. It is noted that the HER mass activity of the Pt nanocrystals/N-doped graphene is 5 fold higher than that of the 20.0 wt% Pt/C commercial catalyst. This optimal catalyst also achieved a low Tafel slope (28.0 mV dec), large apparent exchange current density (0.989 mA cm) and high turnover frequency (2.05 s). This work may provide an effective avenue for developing highly efficient electrochemical catalysts for the HER.
在可再生能源研究中，用于电催化水分解的具有成本效益的催化剂起着关键作用。尽管 Pt 已被认为是最佳的催化剂，但由于其成本高和天然丰度低，其广泛应用受到了阻碍。因此，减少电催化剂设计中的 Pt 使用对于析氢反应 (HER) 具有重要意义。在此，使用硅纳米线作为牺牲模板，将花状 Pt 纳米晶负载在氮掺杂石墨烯的表面上。实验结果表明，具有优异 HER 活性和出色稳定性的最佳 Pt 纳米晶/N-掺杂石墨烯的 Pt 负载量仅为 5.0wt%。值得注意的是，Pt 纳米晶/N-掺杂石墨烯的 HER 质量活性比 20.0wt%Pt/C 商业催化剂高 5 倍。这种最佳催化剂还表现出低的塔菲尔斜率（28.0mVdec）、大的表观交换电流密度（0.989mAcm）和高的周转频率（2.05s）。这项工作可能为开发高效的 HER 电化学催化剂提供了一条有效途径。
