Chemistry Department, Research Center for Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV), Av. Instituto Politécnico Nacional 2508, Col. San Pedro Zacatenco, Del. Gustavo A. Madero, Mexico City 07360, Mexico.
Molecules. 2023 Jun 28;28(13):5072. doi: 10.3390/molecules28135072.
In this work, recent research progresses in the formation of PtCu nanoparticles onto the surface of graphene are described, and the obtained results are contrasted with previously published theoretical studies. To form these nanoparticles, tetrabutylammonium hexachloroplatinate, and copper acetylacetonate are used as platinum and copper precursors, respectively. Oleylamine is used as a reductor and a solvent. The obtained catalyst is characterized via X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive spectroscopy X-ray (EDS). To assess the catalytic activity, the graphene-supported PtCu material is tested with cyclic voltammetry, "CO stripping", and oxygen reduction reaction potentiodynamic curves to find the nature and the intrinsic electrochemical activity of the material. It can be observed that the tetrabutylammonium cation plays a critical role in anchoring and supporting nanoparticles over graphene, from which a broad discussion about the true nature of the anchoring mechanism was derived. The growth mechanism of the nanoparticles on the surface of graphene was observed, supporting the conducted theoretical models. With this study, a reliable, versatile, and efficient synthesis of nanocatalysts is presented, demonstrating the potentiality of PtCu/graphene as an effective cathode catalyst. This study demonstrates the importance of reliable ab inito theoretical results as a useful source of information for the synthesis of the PtCu alloy system.
在这项工作中，描述了最近在将 PtCu 纳米颗粒形成到石墨烯表面的研究进展，并将获得的结果与之前发表的理论研究进行了对比。为了形成这些纳米颗粒，分别使用四丁基六氯铂酸铵和乙酰丙酮铜作为铂和铜前体，油胺用作还原剂和溶剂。通过 X 射线衍射 (XRD)、透射电子显微镜 (TEM)、扫描电子显微镜 (SEM) 和能量色散 X 射线光谱 (EDS) 对获得的催化剂进行了表征。为了评估催化活性，使用循环伏安法、“CO 剥离”和氧还原反应动力曲线对负载在石墨烯上的 PtCu 材料进行了测试，以确定材料的性质和内在电化学活性。可以观察到，四丁基铵阳离子在将纳米颗粒锚定和支撑在石墨烯上起着关键作用，由此得出了关于锚定机制的真实性质的广泛讨论。还观察到了纳米颗粒在石墨烯表面上的生长机制，支持了所进行的理论模型。通过这项研究，提出了一种可靠、通用且高效的纳米催化剂合成方法，展示了 PtCu/石墨烯作为有效阴极催化剂的潜力。这项研究证明了可靠的从头算理论结果作为 PtCu 合金体系合成的有用信息来源的重要性。
