Electrochemistry Laboratory for Sensors & Energy (ELSE) Department of Chemistry, Incheon National University , Incheon 406-772, Republic of Korea.
Department of Bioengineering, University of California , Berkeley, California 94720, United States.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Sep 27;9(38):32965-32976. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b06545. Epub 2017 Sep 13.
We report a virus-incorporated biological template (biotemplate) on electrode surfaces and its use in electrochemical nucleation of metal nanocomposites as an electrocatalytic material for energy applications. The biotemplate was developed with M13 virus (M13) incorporated in a silicate sol-gel matrix as a scaffold to nucleate Au-Pt alloy nanostructures by electrodeposition, together with reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The phage when engineered with Y3E peptides could nucleate Au-Pt alloy nanostructures, which ensured adequate packing density, simultaneous stabilization of rGO, and a significantly increased electrochemically active surface area. Investigation of the electrocatalytic activity of the resulting sol-gel composite catalyst toward methanol oxidation in an alkaline medium showed that this catalyst had mass activity greater than that of the biotemplate containing wild-type M13 and that of monometallic Pt and other Au-Pt nanostructures with different compositions and supports. M13 in the nanocomposite materials provided a close contact between the Au-Pt alloy nanostructures and rGO. In addition, it facilitated the availability of an OH-rich environment to the catalyst. As a result, efficient electron transfer and a synergistic catalytic effect of the Au and Pt in the alloy nanostructures toward methanol oxidation were observed. Our nanocomposite synthesis on the novel biotemplate and its application might be useful for developing novel clean and green energy-generating and energy-storage materials.
我们在电极表面报告了一种包含病毒的生物模板（biotemplate），并将其用于电化学金属纳米复合材料的成核，作为用于能源应用的电催化材料。该生物模板是通过将 M13 病毒（M13）掺入硅酸盐溶胶-凝胶基质中作为支架来开发的，用于通过电沉积来成核 Au-Pt 合金纳米结构，同时还使用了还原氧化石墨烯（rGO）。当用 Y3E 肽工程化噬菌体时，可以成核 Au-Pt 合金纳米结构，这确保了足够的堆积密度，同时稳定 rGO，并显著增加了电化学活性表面积。对所得溶胶-凝胶复合催化剂在碱性介质中对甲醇氧化的电催化活性的研究表明，该催化剂的质量活性大于含有野生型 M13 的生物模板以及其他具有不同组成和载体的单金属 Pt 和其他 Au-Pt 纳米结构的质量活性。纳米复合材料中的 M13 为 Au-Pt 合金纳米结构与 rGO 之间提供了紧密接触。此外，它促进了催化剂中富含 OH 的环境的可用性。结果，观察到合金纳米结构中的 Au 和 Pt 对甲醇氧化的高效电子转移和协同催化作用。我们在新型生物模板上的纳米复合材料合成及其应用可能有助于开发新型清洁和绿色的能源产生和储能材料。
