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Golden single-atomic-site platinum electrocatalysts

Nature Materials volume 17, pages 1033–1039 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Bimetallic nanoparticles with tailored structures constitute a desirable model system for catalysts, as crucial factors such as geometric and electronic effects can be readily controlled by tailoring the structure and alloy bonding of the catalytic site. Here we report a facile colloidal method to prepare a series of platinum–gold (PtAu) nanoparticles with tailored surface structures and particle diameters on the order of 7 nm. Samples with low Pt content, particularly Pt4Au96, exhibited unprecedented electrocatalytic activity for the oxidation of formic acid. A high forward current density of 3.77 A mgPt−1 was observed for Pt4Au96, a value two orders of magnitude greater than those observed for core–shell structured Pt78Au22 and a commercial Pt nanocatalyst. Extensive structural characterization and theoretical density functional theory simulations of the best-performing catalysts revealed densely packed single-atom Pt surface sites surrounded by Au atoms, which suggests that their superior catalytic activity and selectivity could be attributed to the unique structural and alloy-bonding properties of these single-atomic-site catalysts.

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Fig. 1: Synthesis, reactivity and EXAFS of catalysts.
Fig. 2: HAADF-STEM images and structural models.
Fig. 3: Further electrochemical analysis.
Fig. 4: DFT-calculated binding of CO at PtAu surfaces.
Fig. 5: Calculated and experimental DOS.

Data availability

The data supporting the results of this work are available from the authors on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

P.Z. acknowledges financial support from the NSERC Canada Discovery Grant and P.N.D. was funded by an NSERC CGS scholarship. Financial supports from European COST Action MP0903 ‘Nanoalloy’ (Z.Y.L.) and the US National Science Foundation DMR-1409396 (S.C.) are acknowledged. A.A. and Z.A. acknowledge the financial support by Deanship of Scientific Research, King Saud University. Part of this work was supported by a PCOSS Open Project Grant (Xiamen University) awarded to P.Z. and hosted by N.Z. DFT calculations were sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division and used resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231. This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, an Office of Science User Facility operated for the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory, and was supported by the US DOE under contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357, and the Canadian Light Source and its funding partners. The Canadian Light Source is supported by the CFI, NSERC, NRC, CIHR, the University of Saskatchewan, the Government of Saskatchewan and Western Economic Diversification Canada. We are also grateful for the assistance of Z. Finfrock (CLS@APS) and Y. Hu (SXRMB@CLS) for synchrotron technical support, and L. Leonardo for the collection of additional EDX mapping in the JEOL-York Nanocenter using JEM-2200FS Cs-corrected (S)TEM operating at 200 keV.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Z.Y. Li, Christopher P. Deming, Victor Fung.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Paul N. Duchesne & Peng Zhang

  2. Nanoscale Physics Research Laboratory, School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Z. Y. Li

  3. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

    Christopher P. Deming & Shaowei Chen

  4. Department of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA

    Victor Fung & De-en Jiang

  5. State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, and National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Preparation Technology of Nanomaterial, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China

    Xiaojing Zhao & Nanfeng Zheng

  6. Department of Physics, University of York, York, UK

    Jun Yuan

  7. Canadian Light Source, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    Tom Regier

  8. Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University , Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Ali Aldalbahi & Zainab Almarhoon

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  1. Paul N. Duchesne
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Contributions

P.N.D. synthesized all the samples, conducted the XAS experiments and analysis, performed some of the electrochemical and TEM studies, and wrote the manuscript. P.Z. designed the project, coordinated the process of the work and supervised P.N.D. to conduct this research. Z.Y.L. and J.Y. performed the HAADF-STEM measurements and image analysis. C.P.D. performed the electrochemical experiments under the supervision of S.C. V.F. conducted the DFT calculations under the supervision of D.J. X.Z. contributed to the TEM measurements under the supervision of N.Z. A.A. and Z.A. also contributed to part of the TEM measurements. T.R. performed some of the XPS measurements at the Canadian Light Source.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peng Zhang.

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Duchesne, P.N., Li, Z.Y., Deming, C.P. et al. Golden single-atomic-site platinum electrocatalysts. Nature Mater 17, 1033–1039 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0167-5

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