Designing of low Pt electrocatalyst through immobilization on metal@C support for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction in acidic media

Fatemeh Davodi, Geraldine Cilpa-Karhu, Jani Sainio, Mohammad Tavakkoli, Hua Jiang, Elisabeth Mühlhausen, Galina Marzun, Bilal Gökce, Kari Laasonen, Tanja Kallio*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)
115 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Nanoparticles comprising of transition metals encapsulated in an ultrathin graphene layer (NiFe@UTG) are utilized to anchor very low amount of finely dispersed pseudo-atomic Pt to function as a durable and active electrocatalyst (Pt/NiFe@UTG) for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in acidic media. Our experiments show the vital role of the carbon shell thickness for efficient utilization of Pt. Furthermore, density functional theory calculations suggest that the metal-core has a crucial role in achieving promising electrocatalytic properties. The thin carbon shell allows the desired access of Pt atoms to the vicinity of the NiFe core while protecting the metallic core from oxidation in the harsh acidic media. In acidic media, the performance of this Pt/NiFe@UTG catalyst with 0.02 at% Pt is the same as that of commercial Pt/C (10 and 200 mV overpotential to reach 10 and 200 mA cm−2, respectively) with promising durability (5000 HER cycles). Our electrochemical characterization (cyclic voltammetry) shows no Pt specific peaks, indicating the existence of a very low Pt loading on the surface of the catalyst. Hence, this conductive core-shell catalyst support enables efficient utilization of Pt for electrocatalysis.

Original languageEnglish
Article number115076
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Electroanalytical Chemistry
Volume896
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2021
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • Catalyst support interaction
  • Core shell nanoparticle
  • Hydrogen evolution reaction
  • Subnanometer platinum

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