Room-Temperature Synthesis of Sub-2 nm Ultrasmall Platinum-Rare-Earth Metal Nanoalloys for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction.

Inorg Chem

Institute of Materials for Energy and Environment, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China.

Published: August 2022

AI Article Synopsis

  • Researchers have explored Pt alloy electrocatalysts to lower platinum loading and enhance activity, but combining Pt with rare-earth elements has posed challenges due to differing chemical properties.
  • A new method utilizing strong liquid metal reduction at room temperature enables the creation of Pt/RE nanoalloys (including La, Ce, Nd, and others) with adjustable compositions and very small sizes.
  • Among the tested alloys, PtNd/C exhibited superior performance for hydrogen evolution reactions and stability, suggesting its potential for future energy applications.

Article Abstract

To tune the activity of Pt alloy electrocatalysts and reduce the Pt loading, researchers have intensively studied alloys of Pt with late transition metals. However, Pt alloy formation with rare-earth (RE) elements through the traditional chemical route is still a challenge due to the vastly different standard reduction potentials. Here, we report a universal chemical method to prepare a series of Pt/RE (RE = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Lu) nanoalloys with tunable compositions and ultrasmall particle sizes (sub-2 nm). These Pt-RE nanoalloys were synthesized by a strong liquid metal reduction with high-speed shearing assistance at room temperature. Among the nine Pt-RE alloy catalysts, the PtNd/C shows the best hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity, stability, and durability compared to commercial Pt/C. The PtNd/C shows an overpotential of 25.9 mV at the current density of 10 mA/cm with a Tafel slope of 19.5 mV/dec and excellent stability in the acidic medium. This work not only provides a general and scalable strategy for synthesizing noble metal-RE alloys but also highlights noble metal-RE alloys as sufficiently advanced catalysts and accelerates the research of noble metal-RE alloy in energy-related applications.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.2c01502DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

noble metal-re
12
hydrogen evolution
8
evolution reaction
8
metal-re alloys
8
room-temperature synthesis
4
synthesis sub-2
4
sub-2 ultrasmall
4
ultrasmall platinum-rare-earth
4
platinum-rare-earth metal
4
metal nanoalloys
4

Similar Publications

Machine learning aided design of single-atom alloy catalysts for methane cracking.

Nat Commun

July 2024

Institute of Frontier Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University, Binhai Road No.72, 266237, Qingdao, China.

The process of CH cracking into H and carbon has gained wide attention for hydrogen production. However, traditional catalysis methods suffer rapid deactivation due to severe carbon deposition. In this study, we discover that effective CH cracking can be achieved at 450 °C over a Re/Ni single-atom alloy via ball milling.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Room-Temperature Synthesis of Sub-2 nm Ultrasmall Platinum-Rare-Earth Metal Nanoalloys for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction.

Inorg Chem

August 2022

Institute of Materials for Energy and Environment, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China.

Article Synopsis
  • Researchers have explored Pt alloy electrocatalysts to lower platinum loading and enhance activity, but combining Pt with rare-earth elements has posed challenges due to differing chemical properties.
  • A new method utilizing strong liquid metal reduction at room temperature enables the creation of Pt/RE nanoalloys (including La, Ce, Nd, and others) with adjustable compositions and very small sizes.
  • Among the tested alloys, PtNd/C exhibited superior performance for hydrogen evolution reactions and stability, suggesting its potential for future energy applications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

One-atom-thick rare-earth/noble metal (RE-NM) compounds are attractive materials to investigate two-dimensional magnetism, since they are easy to synthesize into a common RE-NM2 structure with high crystal perfection. Here we perform a comparative study of the GdAu2, HoAu2, and YbAu2 monolayer compounds grown on Au(111). We find the same atomic lattice quality and moiré superlattice periodicity in the three cases, but different electronic properties and magnetism.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!