CeO2修饰的Pt/Ni催化剂在碱性溶液中对乙醇电催化氧化性能的增强

有机小分子直接燃料电池具有高能量密度和转换效率、易贮存及运输方便等优点.在过去几十年,有机小分子化合物尤其是乙醇的电催化氧化引起了研究者的关注,高活性和稳定性及低价格的电催化剂的设计和制备一直是乙醇燃料电池的研究热点.本文采用复合电沉积方法制备了Ni和CeO2复合镀层,然后利用Ni置换铂前驱体中Pt的方法制备了纳米CeO2修饰的Pt/Ni电催化剂(Pt/Ni-CeO2).采用X射线衍射(XRD)、扫描电子显微镜(SEM)及能谱仪(EDS)等手段表征了所制样品的组成和相结构、表面形貌及组成成份.XRD结果表明,所制Pt/Ni催化剂主要是PtNi合金相结构.与Pt/Ni相比,Pt/Ni-CeO2催化剂的XRD峰强明显变弱,表明纳米CeO2修饰的Pt/Ni电催化剂的结晶性较差或者其晶体颗粒较小.这可能是由于CeO2的共沉积阻止了Ni纳米颗粒的进一步生长或团聚.当电镀液中CeO2含量为50和100 mg/L时,所制Pt/Ni-CeO2催化剂样品Pt/NiCe1和Pt/NiCe2的XRD谱上未观察到CeO2相关的衍射峰,这主要可归因于催化剂中沉积的CeO2量少或其高度分散.随着电镀液中CeO2浓度进一步增大到200 mg/L时,在Pt/Ni-CeO2催化剂(Pt/NiCe4)的XRD谱上出现了CeO2相关的衍射峰.这表明采用复合电沉积-化学还原法可以成功制备CeO2修饰的Pt/Ni电催化剂.SEM结果显示,所制催化剂都是由团聚状态的纳米颗粒组成,并且Pt/NiCe2表现出比Pt/Ni更开放的微结构,从而有利于反应物扩散至催化剂内部.该结果进一步表明共沉积的CeO2对所制Pt/Ni催化剂微结构的影响.此外,EDS结果也证实成功制备了CeO2修饰的Pt/Ni电催化剂.采用多次循环伏安、电流时间曲线和电化学阻抗谱(EIS)等手段研究了所制电催化剂的电化学性能.与Pt/Ni相比,Pt/Ni-CeO2催化剂表现出更好的电催化氧化乙醇活性和稳定性,这可能与CeO2的贮氧特性及其共沉积增大了电极的粗糙度有关.红外光谱测试结果表明,在CeO2修饰的Pt/Ni电催化剂催化氧化乙醇过程中,CH3COO?可能是乙醇氧化的主要产物.在所制催化剂中,CeO2含量影响其电催化氧化乙醇性能.循环伏安和电流时间曲线测试结果表明,随着催化剂中CeO2含量增大,催化剂活性先增加后减弱.电化学阻抗谱结果表明,随着CeO2含量增大,CeO2修饰的Pt/Ni电催化剂的接触电阻先增大后变小再变大;而电荷转移电阻不断变小.在电解液中含有100 mg/L CeO2时所制电催化剂(Pt/NiCe2)具有最佳的电催化氧化乙醇活性和稳定性.这主要与CeO2的贮氧功能、Pt与CeO2/Ni间的相互作用和其较小的接触电阻和电荷转移电阻有关.该结果可为设计和制备低价格、高活性乙醇燃料电池中的催化剂提供思路.     

High loading Pt nanoparticles on ordered mesoporous carbon sphere arrays for highly active methanol electro-oxidation

Three-dimensionally (3D) ordered mesoporous carbon sphere arrays (OMCS) are explored to support high loading (60 wt%) Pt nanoparticles as electrocatalysts for the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR). The OMCS has a unique hierarchical nanostructure with ordered large mesopores and macropores that can facilitate high dispersion of the Pt nanoparticles and fast mass transport during the reactions. The prepared Pt/OMCS exhibits uniformly dispersed Pt nanoparticles with an average size of 2.0 nm on the mesoporous walls of the carbon spheres. The Pt/OMCS catalyst shows significantly enhanced specific electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) (73.5 m² g^-1) and electrocatalytic activity (0.69 mA cm^-2) for the MOR compared with the commercial 60 wt% Pt/C catalyst.     

Simultaneous Generation of H2O2 and Formate by Co-Electrolysis of Water and CO2 over Bifunctional Zn/SnO2 Nanodots

Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and formate are important chemicals used in various chemical manufacturing industries. One promising approach for the simultaneous production of these chemicals is coupling anodic two-electron water oxidation with cathodic CO₂ reduction in an electrolyzer using nonprecious bifunctional electrocatalysts. Herein, we report an innovative hybrid electrosynthesis strategy using Zn-doped SnO₂ (Zn/SnO₂) nanodots as bifunctional redox electrocatalysts to achieve Faradaic efficiencies of 80.6 % and 92.2 % for H₂O₂ and formate coproduction, respectively, along with excellent stability for at least 60 h at a current density of ≈150 mA cm⁻². Through a combination of physicochemical characterizations, including operando attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), isotope labeling mass spectrometry (MS)/¹H NMR and quasi-in situ electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), with density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we discovered that the Zn dopant facilitates the coupling of *OH intermediates to promote H₂O₂ production and optimizes the adsorption of *OCHO intermediates to accelerate formate formation. Our findings offer new insights into designing more efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst-based pair-electrosynthesis system for the coproduction of H₂O₂ and formate feedstocks.     

First-principles Density Functional Theory Elucidation of the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction on TM-promoted TiC2 (TM=Fe,Co, Ni,Cu, Ru,Rh, Pd,Ag, Os,Ir, Pt,and Au)

Single-atom-catalyst-based systems have been attractive by virtue of their desirable catalytic performance. Herein, the possibility of the 15 transition-metal (TM)-promoted (TM=Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag, Cd, Os, Ir, Pt, Au, and Hg) and their hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance were investigated on two-dimensional titanium carbides (TiC₂). It is found that the adsorption strength of TMs on TiC₂ is stronger than that of TMs on γ-graphyne and weaker than that of TMs on Ti₃C₂. Among the fifteen investigated catalysts, Ru−TiC₂, Ag−TiC₂, Ir−TiC₂, Au−TiC₂, and Fe−TiC₂ exhibits overpotential of −0.18, −0.15, −0.18, −0.17, and −0.04 V, respectively. In addition, the Volmer-Tafel step was preferred to the Volmer-Heyrovsky step on Fe−TiC₂. This work suggests that Fe−TiC₂ is possibly a superior HER electrocatalyst.     

The adjacent Fe oxidation greatly enhancing OER activity on the Ni active site: S plays the role in optimizing local coordination and electronic structure

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the bottleneck process of water splitting, and finding efficient, durable, low-cost, and earth-abundant electrocatalysts remains a major challenge. Here, FeNi₂-400-S is to be a promising OER electrocatalyst which exhibits a low overpotential of 214 mV at a current density of 10 mA/cm². X-ray analysis indicates that the introduction of S leads to a mismatch in bond distance between the metal-sulfur bond and the metal-metal bond, which can change the local electronic structure and favorably control the electronic oxidation. The active site position of FeNi₂-400-S has been further confirmed by DFT, which the 1OOH can stably adsorb on the Ni site of the oxidized Fe-Ni-S benefitting from the synergetic effect of the Ni site and the adjacent oxidized O on the Fe atom. Our findings demonstrate that the internal reconstruction of catalyst can make the optimization of local coordination and electronic structure, in which the in-situ generated vacancy can enable the outstanding OER performance.     

Performance study of palladium modified platinum anode in direct ethanol fuel cells: A green power source

The direct ethanol fuel cell is a green and renewable power source alternative to fossil fuels and produces less emissions compared to a combustion engine. Ethanol can be generated in great quantity from renewable resources like biomass through a fermentation process. Bio-generated ethanol is thus attractive fuel since growing crops for biofuels absorbs much of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere from the oxidation of ethanol. The platinum and palladium were co-deposited on graphite substrate by the galvanostatic technique and employed as anode catalyst for ethanol electrooxidation. The information on surface morphology, structural characteristics and bulk composition of the catalyst was obtained using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) were used for the estimation of the electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) of the synthesized catalysts in alkaline medium. The CVs for ethanol oxidation revealed superior catalytic activity of Pt–Pd/C compared to Pd/C and Pt/C. The effect of OH^? on ethanol oxidation at Pt–Pd/C catalyst was studied using cyclic voltammetry, quasisteady-state polarization, chronoamperometry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The Pt–Pd/C catalyst shows good stability and enhanced electrocatalytic activity is ascribed to the synergistic effect of higher electrochemical surface area, preferred OH^? adsorption on the surface and palladium ad-atom contribution on the alloyed surface.     

Constructing Oxygen Vacancies via Engineering Heterostructured Fe3C/Fe3O4 Catalysts for Electrochemical Ammonia Synthesis

Electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) under ambient conditions provides an intriguing pathway to convert N₂ into NH₃. However, significant kinetic barriers of the NRR at low temperatures in desirable aqueous electrolytes remain a grand challenge due to the inert N≡N bond of the N₂ molecule. Herein, we propose a unique strategy for in situ oxygen vacancy construction to address the significant trade-off between N₂ adsorption and NH₃ desorption by building a hollow shell structured Fe₃C/Fe₃O₄ heterojunction coated with carbon frameworks (Fe₃C/Fe₃O₄@C). In the heterostructure, the Fe₃C triggers the oxygen vacancies of the Fe₃O₄ component, which are likely active sites for the NRR. The design could optimize the adsorption strength of the N₂ and N_xH_y intermediates, thus boosting the catalytic activity for the NRR. This work highlights the significance of the interaction between defect and interface engineering for regulating electrocatalytic properties of heterostructured catalysts for the challenging NRR. It could motivate an in-depth exploration to advance N₂ reduction to ammonia.     

Improvement in performance of a direct ethanol fuel cell: Effect of sulfuric acid and Ni-mesh

A direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC) is developed with low catalyst loading at anode and cathode compared to that reported in the literature. Pt/Ru (40%:20% by wt.)/C and Pt-black were used as anode and cathode catalyst with loadings in the range of 0.5–1.2 mg/cm². The temperatures of anode and cathode were varied from 34 °C to 110 °C, and the pressure was maintained at 1 bar. Although low catalyst loading was used, the cell performance is enhanced by 40–50% with the use of low concentration of sulfuric acid in ethanol and Ni-mesh as current collector at the anode. The power density 15 mW/cm² at 32 mA/cm² of current density is obtained from the single cell with 0.5 mg/cm² loading of Pt–Ru/C at anode (90 °C) and Pt-black at cathode (110 °C). The performance of DEFC increases with the increase in ethanol and sulfuric acid concentrations, electrocatalyst loadings up to 1 mg cm⁻² at anode and cathode. However, the performance of DEFC decreases with further increase in electrocatalyst loading.     

锌掺杂NiCoP多孔双层阵列电极材料的制备及电催化产氢性能

通过水热、 原位磷化及HCl选择性刻蚀的方式构建了一种在泡沫镍上生长的新型Zn掺杂NiCoP多孔双层阵列结构, 与传统的单层阵列相比, 顶层纳米叶片阵列在泡沫镍载体上的底层纳米线阵列上均匀生长, 最大限度地暴露出催化的活性位点, 提供了较大的电解液接触面积. 多孔等级结构也加速了氢气泡的释放. 结果表明, 优化后的多孔H-Zn-NiCo-P催化剂在碱性电解液(1 mol/L KOH)中展现出优异的电解水产氢性能. 该材料驱动电流密度10和100 mA/cm²所需要的过电位仅为59和156 mV, Tafel斜率为66 mV/dec, 且表现出良好的电化学稳定性.     

商用氧化铟锡玻璃:室温高效还原氮气的催化剂电极

NH₃作为一种必需的活化氮源,在化肥、染料、爆炸物和药物等的制造中起到了关键作用;同时,它也是一种在交通运输领域具有吸引力的无碳能源载体.工业上生产氨气使用典型的哈伯-博世工艺,但是此工艺涉及大量的能源消耗和碳排放,给环境带来巨大的压力.电化学氮还原反应(NRR)能够在温和环境下实现环境友好、节能的氨合成,但此过程需要高效的电催化剂.高效的NRR催化剂(Au、Ag、Pd和Ru)储量少、成本高,阻碍了它的实际应用.因此,设计和开发由地球上丰富的元素制成的具有成本效益的催化剂来代替NRR催化剂意义重大.本课题组最近的研究(Chem.Commun.,2018,54,12966-12969)表明,SnO2在环境条件下具有电催化氧化活性,但其低电导率限制了其性能,可通过氟掺杂或石墨烯杂化予以解决.氧化铟锡(ITO)作为一种含SnO2的材料,导电性好,可望用于NRR的高效电催化剂中.因此,本文采用商用氧化铟锡玻璃(ITO/G)作为催化剂电极,在温和环境条件下进行N₂-NH₃的电化学转化,并呈现出对生成氨气有较高的选择性.XRD和XPS结果表示,商用ITO/G中存在In,Sn和O元素;SEM显示ITO/G具有清晰的纳米薄膜结构和267 nm的截面厚度;相应的EDX谱图显示In,Sn和O元素分布均匀,且原子比为32.11:3.16:64.74.采用紫外-可见光谱及线性扫描伏安和恒电位极化等电化学测试研究了商用ITO/G的NRR活性.在0.5 M LiClO4电解液中测试时,于-0.40 V vs.RHE条件下,ITO/G的NH₃产率为1.06×10^-10 mol s^-1 cm^-2,其法拉第效率为6.17%.15N同位素标记实验证实了所测到的NH₃是由ITO/G催化的N₂电还原反应生成的.利用第一性原理计算探讨了在ITO催化剂上可能的NRR反应机理,确定了ITO催化剂的NRR活性位点、N₂化学吸附活性位点以及NRR的反应途径.此外,24 h恒电位(-0.40 V vs.RHE)极化测试和2 h恒电位极化(-0.40 V vs.RHE)测试后的XRD和SEM结果表明,该催化剂具有较高的电化学稳定性.综上所述,商用ITO/G用作在环境条件下将N₂转化为NH₃的有效催化剂电极,将为开发人工固定氮气的ITO基纳米结构提供一种研究途径.