Li Luyao, Wong Stanislaus S
Department of Chemistry, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794-3400, United States.
ACS Omega. 2018 Mar 19;3(3):3294-3313. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.8b00169. eCollection 2018 Mar 31.
Fuel cells (FCs) convert chemical energy into electricity through electrochemical reactions. They maintain desirable functional advantages that render them as attractive candidates for renewable energy alternatives. However, the high cost and general scarcity of conventional FC catalysts largely limit the ubiquitous application of this device configuration. For example, under current consumption requirements, there is an insufficient global reserve of Pt to provide for the needs of an effective FC for every car produced. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary in the future to replace Pt either completely or in part with far more plentiful, abundant, cheaper, and potentially less toxic first row transition metals, because the high cost-to-benefit ratio of conventional catalysts is and will continue to be a major limiting factor preventing mass commercialization. We and other groups have explored a number of nanowire-based catalytic architectures, which are either Pt-free or with reduced Pt content, as an energy efficient solution with improved performance metrics versus conventional, currently commercially available Pt nanoparticles that are already well established in the community. Specifically, in this Perspective, we highlight strategies aimed at the rational modification of not only the physical structure but also the chemical composition as a means of developing superior electrocatalysts for a number of small-molecule-based anodic oxidation and cathodic reduction reactions, which underlie the overall FC behavior. In particular, we focus on efforts to precisely, synergistically, and simultaneously tune not only the size, morphology, architectural motif, surface chemistry, and chemical composition of the as-generated catalysts but also the nature of the underlying support so as to controllably improve performance metrics of the hydrogen oxidation reaction, the methanol oxidation reaction, the ethanol oxidation reaction, and the formic acid oxidation reaction, in addition to the oxygen reduction reaction.
燃料电池（FCs）通过电化学反应将化学能转化为电能。它们具有一些理想的功能优势，使其成为可再生能源替代方案的有吸引力的候选者。然而，传统燃料电池催化剂的高成本和普遍稀缺性在很大程度上限制了这种装置配置的广泛应用。例如，在当前的消费需求下，全球铂储备不足以满足每辆生产的汽车配备有效燃料电池的需求。因此，未来完全或部分用储量丰富得多、成本更低且潜在毒性更小的第一排过渡金属替代铂是绝对必要的，因为传统催化剂的高成本效益比一直是并将继续是阻碍大规模商业化的主要限制因素。我们和其他团队已经探索了许多基于纳米线的催化结构，这些结构要么不含铂，要么铂含量降低，作为一种节能解决方案，与目前在该领域已得到广泛应用的传统市售铂纳米颗粒相比，具有更好的性能指标。具体而言，在这篇展望中，我们强调了旨在合理修饰物理结构和化学成分的策略，以此开发用于多种基于小分子的阳极氧化和阴极还原反应的优质电催化剂，这些反应是整个燃料电池行为的基础。特别是，我们专注于精确、协同且同时调节所制备催化剂的尺寸、形态、结构图案、表面化学和化学成分，以及底层载体的性质，以便可控地提高氢氧化反应、甲醇氧化反应、乙醇氧化反应和甲酸氧化反应以及氧还原反应的性能指标。
