Search

Platinum-based alloy nanowire catalysts demonstrates great promise as electrocatalysts to facilitate the cathodic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). However, it is still challenge to further improve the Pt atom utilization of Pt based nanowires featuring inherent structural stability. Herein, a new structure of PtCo nanowire with nanodendrites was developed using CO-assistance solvent thermal method. The dendrite structure with an average length of about 7 nm are characterized by a Pt-rich surface and the high-index facets of {533}, {331} and {311}, and grows from the ultra-fine wire structure with an average diameter of about 3 nm. PtCo nanowires with nanodendrites developed in this work shows outstanding performance for ORR, in which its mass activity of 1.036 A/mg Pt is 5.76 times, 1.74 times higher than that of commercial Pt/C (0.180 A/mg Pt ) and PtCo nanowires without nanodendrites (0.595 A/mg Pt ), and its mass activity loss is only 18% under the accelerated durability tests (ADTs) for 5k cycles. The significant improvement is attributed to high exposure of active sites induced by the dendrite structure with Pt-rich surface with the high-index facets and Pt-rich surface. This structure may provide a new idea for developing novel 1D Pt based electrocatalysts., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Ammonia has been emerging as a sustainable and environmentally friendly fuel. However, direct electrochemical ammonia oxidation reaction (AOR) in low-temperature fuel cells seriously suffers from high overpotential and deficient durability. Herein, rhombic dodecahedron nanoframe of platinum iridium copper (PtIrCu) with high-index faceted hyperbranched nanodendrites (RDNF-HNDs) was developed using a one-step self-etching solvothermal method. The framework structure with the high-index facets enables the PtIrCu nanocrystals to expose more effective active sites. They exhibit an ultra-low onset potential of 0.33 V vs. RHE and high mass activity of 26.1 A g PtIr -1 at 0.50 V, which is 140 mV lower and 7.5 times higher than that of commercial Pt/C in the AOR. In situ attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy verifies that AOR on PtIrCu RDNF-HNDs prefers to the NH x dimerization pathways, effectively alleviating the poison of N ads and NO x . The theoretical calculation also shows that both introducing Cu atoms into PtIr alloy and increasing the content of Ir in PtIrCu alloy can reduce the reaction energy barrier of electrochemical dehydrogenation from *NH 2 to *NH. The specific structure of PtIrCu RDNF-NDs provides a new inspiration to solve the critical issue of electrocatalysts for AOR with low activity and durability., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Despite the remarkable research efforts, the lack of ideal activity and state-of-the-art electrocatalysts remains a substantial challenge for the global application of fuel cell technology. Herein, is reported the synthesis of Au@PtNiAu concave octahedral core-shell nanocatalysts (Au@PtNiAu-COCS) via solvothermal synthesis modification and optimization approach. The special structure generating a large number of step atoms, enhancing the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) activity and stability. The superior ORR mass activity of the Au@PtNiAu-COCS is 11.22 times than the exhibited of Pt/C initially by Pt loading, and 5.11 times by Pt + Au loading. After 30 k cycles the mass activity remains 78.8% (8.83 times the initial Pt/C activity) and the half-wave potential only shifts 12 mV. Au@PtNiAu-COCS has superior half-cell activity and gives ideal membrane electrode assemblies. Furthermore, for MOR the Au@PtNiAu-COCS show enhanced anti-toxic (tolerant) ability in CO. This work provides a new strategy to develop core-shell structure nanomaterials for electrocatalysis., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Constructing efficient and stable bifunctional catalysts is essential to improve the conversion efficiency of overall water splitting (OWS). In this work, 3D porous Ni-Fe sulfide nanosheets supported on nickel foam (Ni-Fe-S/NF) were synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method. The optimized Ni 3 S 2 -FeS/NF-2 electrode realized ultra-high efficiency for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Benefiting from the unique 3D porous nanosheets structure and the strong electronic interactions between Ni 3 S 2 and FeS through component regulation, low overpotentials of 253 and 262 mV are required to drive a current density of 100 mA cm -2 for OER and HER, respectively. Importantly, Ni 3 S 2 -FeS/NF-2 bifunctional catalyst only needs 1.55 and 1.75 V at 10 and 100 mA cm -2 respectively and works continuously for at least 100 h. The work thus provides an extraordinary promising catalyst for OWS and can be envisioned of potential for large-scale applications., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

It is critical to develop carbon material anodes with high initial Coulombic efficiency and energy density for sodium ion batteries. Herein, a novel mushroom spore with chitin as carbon precursor is first reported for energy storage, and its special porous spherical structure, fine structure and oxygen functional groups can be accurately controlled by carbonization temperature. The hollow porous carbon spheres obtained from mushroom spore at 1400 °C have appropriate porous structure, d 002 spacing (0.364 nm), 7.12% oxygen content and ultra-low specific surface area of 5.5 m 2 g -1 . It could obtain 81.2% initial Coulombic efficiency and has reversible discharge capacity of 411.1 mA h g -1 , wherein about 75% (308 mA h g -1 ) of its total capacity is derived from low-potential plateau (below 0.1 V Na + /Na), and the capacity is 384.5 mA h g -1 after 50 cycles. Furthermore, Density functional theory calculation showed that the residual oxygen functional groups (CO) in carbon materials are beneficial to sodium into graphite-like layers, and graphite-like layers spacing is smaller than the reported unadulterated carbon with 0.37 nm. Therefore, the excellent electrochemical performance and low-cost of natural mushroom spore derived hollow porous carbon spheres provide advantages for sodium ion batteries in large-scale storage devices., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Ammonia oxidation reaction (AOR) via electrocatalysis is one of the most efficient ways of utilizing ammonia (a zero-carbon fuel with high hydrogen content) for renewable energy systems. However, AOR seriously suffers from the slow kinetics, and low durability due to its multi-electron transfer process and the poison of the reaction intermediates (N ads and NO ads ) to precious metal catalysts. Herein, hyperbranched concave octahedral nanodendrites of PtIrCu (HCOND) with high-index facets of {553}, {331} and {221} were developed for the first time using a solvothermal method. The HCOND possesses PtIr-rich edges and exhibit highly efficient AOR activity and stability in alkaline media, wherein their onset potential is 0.35 V vs.RHE, which is 60 mV and 160 mV lower than that of the PtIrCu nanoparticles (NPs) (0.41 V) and commercial Pt/C (0.51 V), respectively, and its high mass activity of 40.6 A g PtIr -1 at the 0.5 V vs.RHE is 10.3 times, 2.34 times higher than that of commercial Pt/C (3.9 A g Pt -1 ) and PtIrCu NPs (17.3 A g PtIr -1 ), respectively. In addition, its peak current density (122.9 A g PtIr -1 ) is only reduced by 17.7% after 2000-cycles accelerated durability test. Meanwhile, the performance of PtIrCu HCOND is also better than that of other previously reported morphologies of Pt based catalysts (eg. nanoparticles, nanocubes, nanofilm, nanoflowers). The improvement is critically ascribed to unique advantages of the specific HCOND structure including PtIr rich surface, high-index faceted nanodendrites, strong lattice strain and electronic effects. These characteristics endow the HCOND with great promise to reduce Pt and Ir loading dramatically in the practical application of direct ammonia fuel cells., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)