微乳法合成Pt/C、PtIr/C催化剂及其电化学性能表征

以碳纳米粉(XC-72R)作为载体,采用三种不同方法合成Pt/C负载型催化剂。利用X射线衍射(XRD)、透射电镜(TEM)、循环伏安法(CV)、恒电位测试(Potentiostatic)以及线性极化分析（Potentiodynamic polarization）等手段进行催化剂表征,结果表明,微乳法制得的负载型催化剂,活性组分的颗粒尺寸为5～10nm,且均匀地分散在载体表面,其电化学性能良好。而微乳法进一步制备的含不同比例的负载型的PtIr/C催化剂,其中以Pt85Ir15表现出更为较好的电化学综合性能。     

金属间化合物电催化剂Pt1Te1/XC-72的制备及其电催化氧化甲醇性能

以氯铂酸和亚碲酸钠为前驱体,采用两步法在醇水体系下得到负载型Pt1Te1金属间化合物前驱体,通过热处理得到负载型金属间化合物电催化剂Pt1Te1/XC-72.采用X射线衍射（XRD）、透射电子显微镜（TEM）、选区电子衍射（SAED）、电子能谱（EDS）和循环伏安方法（CV）对催化剂进行表征.结果表明：所得产物呈有序金属间化合物Pt1Te1结构,平均粒径4.5nm,在碳载体上具有很好的分散性;负载型金属间化合物电催化剂Pt1Te1/XC-72具有较高的电催化氧化甲醇活性,其优秀的催化氧化甲醇活性与Pt形成金属间化合物后所带来的几何及电子结构改变密切相关.     

对电极材料对非贵金属电催化剂耐久性评价的影响

质子交换膜燃料电池(PEMFCs)环境友好,具有高的能量转换效率,已受到了广泛的关注.目前,铂基电催化剂广泛使用在 PEMFCs中,但铂的储量有限,活性低,耐久性差,成本高,急需开发高性能的非贵金属电催化剂替代铂基电催化剂.非贵金属电催化剂的电化学表征基本上都沿用了铂基电催化剂的评价体系和方法,不一定适用于非贵金属电催化剂的表征.
　　本文选用铂和石墨为对电极考察其对非贵金属电催化剂在酸性电解质中耐久性测试的影响.当使用铂对电极时,商业 Pt/C电催化剂的氧还原(ORR)活性随着耐久性测试圈数的增加而降低,而非贵金属电催化剂的氧还原活性在耐久性测试过程中的变化规律与商业 Pt/C不同,呈现先降低,后升高的规律.耐久性测试前后的透射电镜(TEM)分析表明非贵金属电催化剂经过耐久性测试后,在电催化剂表面生长了铂纳米颗粒.高分辨透射电镜(HRTEM)和能量色散 X射线光谱(EDX)进一步证明以铂为对电极的三电极体系,在进行非贵金属电催化剂耐久性测试的过程中,非贵金属电催化剂表面生长了铂纳米颗粒,使得非贵金属电催化剂的 ORR活性在耐久性测试后得到显著提高.耐久性测试前后,非贵金属电催化剂氧还原过程的电子转移数由3.7变为4.0,再次证明了耐久性测试过程中铂颗粒的生成.在三电极电化学体系中,当工作电极发生阴极反应时,对电极为阳极反应,反之亦然,即在工作电极上发生的任何电化学过程,都会在对电极上完成相反的电化学过程.在循环电位扫描过程中,当铂对电极的电压高于1.0 V (vs RHE)时,开始发生铂的溶解现象,并且当电压高于1.2 V (vs RHE)时,铂的溶解量会急剧增加,部分溶解的铂会扩散到工作电极附近,并在工作电极的非贵金属电催化剂表面发生沉积作用.随着扫描圈数的增加,沉积的铂纳米颗粒的数量增加,颗粒变大,从而使非贵金属电催化剂的表观 ORR活性显著提高.该现象使得非贵金属电催化剂在酸性电解质中无法表现出其真实的耐久性.当选用石墨棒为对电极材料时,非贵金属电催化剂在酸性电解质中的 ORR活性不会受到对电极材料的影响.
　　通过考察对电极材料对非贵金属电催化剂在酸性电解质中耐久性能的影响,可以得出结论,即对非贵金属电催化剂在酸性电解质中的耐久性测试中,不宜使用铂对电极,应该使用石墨为对电极材料,以防止对电极材料干扰耐久性测试.     

锌活化Fe/Co/N掺杂的生物质碳基高效氧还原催化剂

为了推动清洁能源-燃料电池的广泛应用, 迫切需要研发成本低、 原料来源广泛的过渡金属基高效氧还原反应(ORR)催化材料, 来替代目前使用的贵金属铂基催化材料. 本文以铁和钴等非贵金属离子作为催化材料的主要活性位点, 通过金属-羧基/羟基螯合键原位预锚定在具有三维(3D)孔道结构、 富含羧基和羟基以及极易在水溶液中形成凝胶网络的海洋生物质材料海藻酸钠上, 经冷冻干燥得到气凝胶; 然后通过高温碳化, 得到活性位点均匀分布在具有多级孔结构的碳骨架中的高活性、 高稳定的Co/Zn/Fe/N@bio-C-2氧还原催化剂材料, 该催化剂包含2种不同的铁基活性材料(Fe₂O₃和Fe)以及2种不同的钴基活性材料(CoO和Co).利用硝酸锌作为活化剂来改善催化材料的孔道结构, 使制备碳材料的总面积从149.3 m²/g增加到325.3 m²/g. 通过一系列对比实验发现, Fe/Co双活性位点与合适比表面积的协同作用使得Co/Zn/Fe/N@bio-C-2获得了最佳的ORR催化活性.其在0.1 mol/L KOH溶液中起始电位达到0.99 V, 半波电位可达0.87 V.     

电化学合成纳米材料和小分子材料在电解制氢领域的应用

氢气是一种清洁、高效、可再生的新型能源,并且是未来碳中和能源供应中最具潜力的化石燃料替代品。因此,可持续氢能源制造具有极大的吸引力与迫切的需求,尤其是通过清洁、环保、零排放的电解水方法。然而,目前的电解水反应受到其缓慢的动力学以及低成本/能源效率的制约。在这些方面,电化学合成通过制造先进的电催化剂和提供更高效/增值的共电解替代品,为提高水电解的效率和效益提供了广阔的前景。它是一种环保、简单的通过电解或其他电化学操作,对从分子到纳米尺度的材料进行制造的方法。本文首先介绍了电化学合成的基本概念、设计方法以及常用方法。然后,总结了电化学合成技术在电解水领域的应用及进展。我们专注于电化学合成的纳米结构电催化剂以实现更高效的电解水制氢,以及小分子的电化学氧化以取代电解水制氢中的析氧共反应,实现更高效、 增值的共电解制氢。我们系统地讨论了电化学合成条件与产物的关系,以启发未来的探索。最后,本文讨论了电化学合成在先进电解水以及其他能量转换和储存应用方面的挑战和前景。     

Highly Active Electrocatalyst Derived from ZIF-8 Decorated with Iron(III) and Cobalt(III) Porphyrin Toward Efficient Oxygen Reduction in Both Alkaline and Acidic Media

Zeolite imidazole frameworks 8(ZIF-8) and modified ones after pyrolysis are highly promising toward oxygen reduction reaction(ORR). Especially, the compositional modification of ZIF-8 is crucial to the enhancement of ORR performance, yet limited to the substitution of skeletal Zn(II) with other cations or simple physical adsorption of cations. Herein, we report the decoration of ZIF-8 with ORR active hemin(FeP) and Co(III) protoporphyrin(CoP) via the coordination between the peripheral carboxylic group of FeP and CoP with skeletal Zn(II). This allows well control over the quantity of loaded FeP and CoP, critical to the synthesis of advanced electrocatalysts. Subsequent pyrolysis of FeP and CoP co-decorated ZIF-8 leads to highly active ORR electrocatalysts with a half-wave potential(E_1/2) of 0. 913 V(vs. RHE) in 0.1 mol/L KOH aq. and an E_1/2 of 0.803 V(vs. RHE) in 0.1 mol/L HClO₄ aq. Moreover, our electrocatalyst shows much more improved and comparable durability in alkaline and acidic media, respectively, during 3000 cycles of cyclic voltammetry(CV) scanning relative to commercial Pt/C.     

C_9N_4 as excellent dual electrocatalyst: A first principles study

We perform first principles calculations to investigate the catalytic behavior of C_9 N_4 nanosheet for water splitting.For the pristine C_9 N_4,we find that,at different hydrogen coverages,two H atoms adsorbed on the 12-membered ring and one H atom adsorbed on the 9-membered ring show excellent performance of hydrogen evolution reaction(HER).Tensile strain could improve the catalytic ability of C_9 N_4 and strain can be practically introduced by building C_9 N_4/BiN,and C_9 N_4/GaAs heterojunctions.We demonstrate that the HER performance of heterojunctions is indeed improved compared with that of C_9 N_4 nanosheet.Anchoring transition metal atoms on C_9 N_4 is another strategy to apply strain.It shows that Rh@C_9 N_4 exhibits superior HER property with very low Gibbs free energy change of-30 meV.Under tensile strain within ～2%,Rh@C_9 N_4 could catalyze HER readily.Moreover,the catalyst Rh_9 C_9 N_4 works well for oxygen evolution reaction(OER)with an overpotential of 0.58 V.Our results suggest that Rh@C_9 N_4 is favorable for both HER and OER because of its metallic conductivity,close-zero Gibbs free energy change,and low oneset overpotential.The outstanding performance of C_9 N_4 nanosheet could be attributed to the tunable porous structure and electronic structure compatibility.     

Reverse micelle synthesis of perovskite oxide nanoparticles

La_0.6Sr_0.4Co_xFe_1−xO_3−δ (LSCF), La_0.6Sr_0.4Cu_0.2Fe_0.8O_3−δ, Ba_0.5Sr_0.4Co_0.8Fe_0.2O_3−δ and LaFeO_3−δ nanoparticles were synthesized by a reverse micelle procedure. Controlling the size of the micelles through the water:oil phase ratio enabled synthesis of phase pure perovskite particles with average sizes from 14 nm to 50 nm. Small amounts of an impurity phase, likely cobalt oxide, were detected in the XRD spectrum of high cobalt content samples of LSCF (x = 0.8). La_0.6Sr_0.4Co_0.2Fe_0.8O_3−δ nanoparticles were utilized to coat the surface of a dense thin-film La_0.6Sr_0.4Co_0.2Fe_0.8O_3−δ solid oxide fuel cell cathode. The polarization resistance of the nanoparticle coated electrode, measured at open circuit in air at 973 K, was 20% lower than an equivalent un-coated electrode.     

Exploration of bimetallic Pt-Pd/C nanoparticles as an electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction

In this study, carbon supported Pt and Pt-Pd were synthesized as oxygen reduction reaction electrocatalysts for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Pt and Pt-Pd nanoparticles have been synthesized by reduction of metal precursors in presence of NaBH₄. Various techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were utilized to study the prepared samples. Furthermore, electrochemical properties of the prepared samples were evaluated from cyclic voltammetry (CV), linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), chronoamperometry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results showed, the crystallite size of electrocatalysts (Pt and Pt-Pd) is below 10 nm. The higher catalytic activity was detected for Pt-Pd/C electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). In addition, it is believed that the better performance of electrocatalyst is related to the synergic effect between Pt and Pd nanoparticles, weakening of the OO bond on Pd-modified Pt nanoparticles in ORR, uniform dispersion of Pd and Pt on the carbon support and higher electrochemical active surface area (EAS) of Pt-Pd/C electrocatalyst.     

Phase-Selective Syntheses of Cobalt Telluride Nanofleeces for Efficient Oxygen Evolution Catalysts

Cobalt-based nanomaterials have been intensively explored as promising noble-metal-free oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts. Herein, we report phase-selective syntheses of novel hierarchical CoTe₂ and CoTe nanofleeces for efficient OER catalysts. The CoTe₂ nanofleeces exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity and stablity for OER in alkaline media. The CoTe₂ catalyst exhibited superior OER activity compared to the CoTe catalyst, which is comparable to the state-of-the-art RuO₂ catalyst. Density functional theory calculations showed that the binding strength and lateral interaction of the reaction intermediates on CoTe₂ and CoTe are essential for determining the overpotential required under different conditions. This study provides valuable insights for the rational design of noble-metal-free OER catalysts with high performance and low cost by use of Co-based chalcogenides.