Carbon-Supported Divacancy-Anchored Platinum Single-Atom Electrocatalysts with Superhigh Pt Utilization for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Jing Liu; Menggai Jiao; Bingbao Mei; Yuxin Tong; Yuping Li; Mingbo Ruan; Ping Song; Gongquan Sun; Luhua Jiang; Ying Wang; Zheng Jiang; Lin Gu; Zhen Zhou; Weilin Xu

doi:10.1002/anie.201812423

Carbon-Supported Divacancy-Anchored Platinum Single-Atom Electrocatalysts with Superhigh Pt Utilization for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2019 Jan 21;58(4):1163-1167. doi: 10.1002/anie.201812423. Epub 2018 Dec 20.

Authors

Jing Liu^{1

2}, Menggai Jiao³, Bingbao Mei^{2

4}, Yuxin Tong⁵, Yuping Li⁶, Mingbo Ruan¹, Ping Song¹, Gongquan Sun⁶, Luhua Jiang^{6

7}, Ying Wang⁸, Zheng Jiang⁴, Lin Gu^{5

9}, Zhen Zhou³, Weilin Xu¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Jilin Province Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Chemical Power, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 5625 Renmin Street, Changchun, 130022, China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Institute of New Energy Material Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, China.
⁴ Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201204, China.
⁵ School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
⁶ Division of Fuel Cell & Battery, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, China.
⁷ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266042, China.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, China.
⁹ Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.

PMID: 30520205
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201812423

Abstract

Maximizing the platinum utilization in electrocatalysts toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is very desirable for large-scale sustainable application of Pt in energy systems. A cost-effective carbon-supported carbon-defect-anchored platinum single-atom electrocatalysts (Pt₁ /C) with remarkable ORR performance is reported. An acidic H₂ /O₂ single cell with Pt₁ /C as cathode delivers a maximum power density of 520 mW cm^-2 at 80 °C, corresponding to a superhigh platinum utilization of 0.09 g_Pt kW^-1 . Further physical characterization and density functional theory computations reveal that single Pt atoms anchored stably by four carbon atoms in carbon divacancies (Pt-C₄ ) are the main active centers for the observed high ORR performance.

Keywords: carbon defects; fuel cells; oxygen reduction reaction; platinum; single-atom catalysts.