Hu Riming, Li Yongcheng, Wang Fuhe, Shang Jiaxiang
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China.
Center for Condensed Matter Physics, Department of Physics, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China.
Nanoscale. 2020 Oct 15;12(39):20413-20424. doi: 10.1039/d0nr05202g.
Bimetallic atom catalysts (BACs), which can exhibit remarkable catalytic performance compared with single atom catalysts (SACs) due to their higher metal loading and the synergy between two metal atoms, have attracted great attention in research. Herein, by means of density functional theory calculations, novel BACs with a bilayer structure composed of monolayers FeN4 (Fe and nitrogen co-doped graphene) and MN4 (Fe/M, M represents transition metal atoms) as electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are investigated. Among these bilayer SACs, a series of highly efficient monofunctional, bifunctional, and even trifunctional electrocatalysts have been screened. For example, the overpotentials for the HER, ORR, and OER can reach -0.02 (Fe/Cu), 0.31 (Fe/Hg), and 0.27 V (Fe/Hf), respectively; Fe/Hf and Ir/Fe can serve as promising bifunctional catalysts for the ORR/OER and HER/OER, respectively and Fe/Rh is considered as an excellent trifunctional catalyst for the HER, OER, and ORR. This work not only provides a new idea for understanding and optimizing the active sites of BACs, but also proposes a new strategy for designing high-performance multifunctional electrocatalysts for fuel cells and metal-air batteries.
双金属原子催化剂(BACs)由于其更高的金属负载量以及两种金属原子之间的协同作用,与单原子催化剂(SACs)相比可表现出卓越的催化性能,在研究中备受关注。在此,借助密度泛函理论计算,研究了以由单层FeN4(铁和氮共掺杂石墨烯)和MN4(Fe/M,M代表过渡金属原子)组成的双层结构作为析氢反应(HER)、氧还原反应(ORR)和析氧反应(OER)电催化剂的新型BACs。在这些双层SACs中,筛选出了一系列高效的单功能、双功能甚至三功能电催化剂。例如,HER、ORR和OER的过电位分别可达到-0.02(Fe/Cu)、0.31(Fe/Hg)和0.27 V(Fe/Hf);Fe/Hf和Ir/Fe可分别作为用于ORR/OER和HER/OER的有前景的双功能催化剂,并且Fe/Rh被认为是用于HER、OER和ORR的优异三功能催化剂。这项工作不仅为理解和优化BACs的活性位点提供了新思路,还为设计用于燃料电池和金属空气电池的高性能多功能电催化剂提出了新策略。