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Nanomaterials: Synthesis of New Few- or Free-Noble Metal Electrocatalysts for Water Splitting

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Nanochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2024) | Viewed by 3039

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Guest Editor
Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry, Ministry of Education of China, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
Interests: nanochemistry; photodetction; electrocatalysis; catalytical combustion; gas sensors; photoluminescence; Li ion batteries; energy storage
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the gradual depletion of fossil fuels and deterioration of the ecological environment, it is necessary to pursue renewable and sustainable energy sources. Hydrogen (H2) has been considered as a clean and new energy due to its high energy density and negligible pollution of combustion products. Water electrolysis is deemed as a promising strategy to produce H2 because of abundance in resources and carbon-free emissions. However, the practical application of water splitting has been largely impeded due to the relatively slower kinetics and higher overpotentials of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at the anode. In acid media, commercial Pt/C and RuO2 (IrO2) are regarded as the optimal electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and OER, respectively, but their applications are limited by using a large number of noble metals. In alkaline media, non-noble metals for catalysts are easy to be obtained, but the kinetics of HER is sluggish, and overpotentials of OER are higher, too. Therefore, the development of high efficient and stable few-or free-noble metal electrocatalysts is important.

In this Special Issue, we invite investigators to contribute original research articles, communications, as well as review articles that are related to new materials design for HER and OER in acid or alkaline media.

Prof. Dr. Xingcai Wu
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • few- or free-noble metals
  • electrocatalysts
  • photoelectrocatalysts
  • hydrogen evolution
  • oxygen evolution
  • micro-/nanostructures
  • 2D materials
  • films

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 1924 KiB  
Article
Platinum/Platinum Sulfide on Sulfur-Doped Carbon Nanosheets with Multiple Interfaces toward High Hydrogen Evolution Activity
by Mou Zhang, Mengfei Su, Chunyan Zhang, Feng Gao and Qingyi Lu
Molecules 2024, 29(19), 4570; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules29194570 - 26 Sep 2024
Viewed by 613
Abstract
Platinum (Pt)-based materials are among the most competitive electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) due to suitable hydrogen adsorption energy. Due to the rarity of Pt, it is desirable to develop cost-effective Pt-based electrocatalysts with low Pt loading. Herein, Pt/PtS electrocatalysts on [...] Read more.
Platinum (Pt)-based materials are among the most competitive electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) due to suitable hydrogen adsorption energy. Due to the rarity of Pt, it is desirable to develop cost-effective Pt-based electrocatalysts with low Pt loading. Herein, Pt/PtS electrocatalysts on S-doped carbon nanofilms (PPS/C) have been successfully fabricated through a precursor reduction route with a complex of Pt and 1-dodecanethiol (1-DDT) as the precursor. The PPS/C achieved at 400 °C (PPS/C-400) exhibits excellent HER performances with an ultralow overpotential of 41.3 mV, a low Tafel slope of 43.1 mV dec−1 at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, and a long-term stability of 10 h, superior to many recently reported Pt-based HER electrocatalysts. More importantly, PPS/C-400 shows a high mass-specific activity of 0.362 A mgPt−1 at 30 mV, which is 1.88 times of that of commercial 20% Pt/C (0.193 A mgPt−1). The introduction of sulfur leads to the formation of PtS, which not only reduces the content of Pt but also realizes the interface regulation of Pt/PtS, as well as the doping of carbon. Both regulations make the resulting catalyst have abundant active centers and rapid electron transfer/transport, which is conducive to balancing the adsorption and resolution of intermediate products, and finally achieving great mass-specific activity and stability. The research work may provide ideas for designing effective Pt-based multi-interface electrocatalysts. Full article
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11 pages, 3867 KiB  
Article
Ta3N5 Nanobelt-Loaded Ru Nanoparticle Hybrids’ Electrocatalysis for Hydrogen Evolution in Alkaline Media
by Xinyu Zhang, Lulu Xu, Xingcai Wu, Yourong Tao and Weiwei Xiong
Molecules 2023, 28(3), 1100; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28031100 - 21 Jan 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1818
Abstract
Electrochemical hydrogen evolution is a highly efficient way to produce hydrogen, but since it is limited by high-cost electrocatalysts, the preparation of high-efficiency electrocatalysts with fewer or free noble metals is important. Here, Ta3N5 nanobelt (NB)-loaded Ru nanoparticle (NP) hybrids [...] Read more.
Electrochemical hydrogen evolution is a highly efficient way to produce hydrogen, but since it is limited by high-cost electrocatalysts, the preparation of high-efficiency electrocatalysts with fewer or free noble metals is important. Here, Ta3N5 nanobelt (NB)-loaded Ru nanoparticle (NP) hybrids with various ratios, including 1~10 wt% Ru/Ta3N5, are constructed to electrocatalyze water splitting for a hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline media. The results show that 5 wt% Ru/Ta3N5 NBs have good HER properties with an overpotential of 64.6 mV, a Tafel slope of 84.92 mV/dec at 10 mA/cm2 in 1 M of KOH solution, and good stability. The overpotential of the HER is lower than that of Pt/C (20 wt%) at current densities of 26.3 mA/cm2 or more. The morphologies and structures of the materials are characterized by scanning electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, respectively. X-ray photoelectron energy spectroscopy (XPS) demonstrates that a good HER performance is generated by the synergistic effect and electronic transfer of Ru to Ta3N5. Our electrochemical analyses and theoretical calculations indicate that Ru/Ta3N5 interfaces play an important role as real active sites. Full article
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