Epitaxial Growth of Ultrathin Highly Crystalline Pt-Ni Nanostructure on a Metal Carbide Template for Efficient Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Hui Ding; Peng Wang; Caijie Su; Hongfei Liu; Xiaolin Tai; Nan Zhang; Haifeng Lv; Yue Lin; Wangsheng Chu; Xiaojun Wu; Changzheng Wu; Yi Xie

doi:10.1002/adma.202109188

Epitaxial Growth of Ultrathin Highly Crystalline Pt-Ni Nanostructure on a Metal Carbide Template for Efficient Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Adv Mater. 2022 Mar;34(12):e2109188. doi: 10.1002/adma.202109188. Epub 2022 Feb 13.

Authors

Hui Ding¹, Peng Wang², Caijie Su¹, Hongfei Liu¹, Xiaolin Tai¹, Nan Zhang³, Haifeng Lv², Yue Lin¹, Wangsheng Chu³, Xiaojun Wu², Changzheng Wu^{1

4}, Yi Xie^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Materials Sciences, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, and CAS Key Laboratory of Mechanical Behavior and Design of Materials, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials (iChEM), University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, P. R. China.
² School of Chemistry and Materials Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, P. R. China.
³ National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230029, P. R. China.
⁴ Institute of Energy, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei, 230026, P. R. China.

PMID: 35077589
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202109188

Abstract

Structure engineering strategies such as core-shell and hollow nanostructures are effective pathways to improve the utilization of noble metals for catalysis. However, nowadays materials design based on these strategies still largely rely on precious metal templates. Herein, the epitaxial growth of highly crystalline Pt₃ Ni overlayer on earth-abundant nickel carbide is reported, forming Ni₃ C@Pt₃ Ni core-shell nanoparticles with a well-defined interface through a new lattice-match-directed synthetic strategy. Derived from such core-shell nanostructures, ultrathin highly crystalline Pt₃ Ni nanocages have an advantageous configuration of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR)-favored facets and inherently high active surface area for the ORR, bringing high mass activity and specific activity as much as 4.71 A mg_Pt ^-1 and 5.14 mA cm^-2 , which are 26 and 20 times to that of commercial Pt/C, respectively. This novel epitaxial growth of platinum opens up new avenues to rationally design highly active and economical electrocatalysts.

Keywords: core-shell structures; epitaxial growth; highly crystalline nanocages; interfacial lattice plane mismatch; oxygen reduction reaction.

Abstract

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