Newly Designed Graphene Cellular Monolith Functionalized with Hollow Pt-M (M = Ni, Co) Nanoparticles as the Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Yazhou Zhou; Juan Yang; Chengzhou Zhu; Dan Du; Xiaonong Cheng; Clive Hsu Yen; Chien M Wai; Yuehe Lin

doi:10.1021/acsami.6b04963

Newly Designed Graphene Cellular Monolith Functionalized with Hollow Pt-M (M = Ni, Co) Nanoparticles as the Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2016 Oct 5;8(39):25863-25874. doi: 10.1021/acsami.6b04963. Epub 2016 Sep 21.

Authors

Yazhou Zhou^{1

2}, Juan Yang¹, Chengzhou Zhu², Dan Du², Xiaonong Cheng¹, Clive Hsu Yen³, Chien M Wai³, Yuehe Lin²

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University , Zhenjiang 212013, People's Republic of China.
² School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State University , Pullman, Washington 99164-2920, United States.
³ Department of Chemistry, University of Idaho , Moscow, Idaho 83844-2343, United States.

PMID: 27610707
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.6b04963

Abstract

Newly designed graphene cellular monoliths (GCMs) functionalized with hollow Pt-M nanoparticles (NPs) (Pt-M/GCM, M = Ni, Co) have been successfully achieved by a facile and powerful method on the basis of sonochemical-assisted reduction and gelatinization processes. First, hollow Pt-M (M = Ni, Co) NPs were synthesized and distributed on graphene oxide sheets (Pt-M/GO) by sodium borohydride reduction of metal precursors in the ultrasonic environment. Second, the hollow structure was further formed by ascorbic acid (AA) reduction of Pt precursors in gelatinization process. Meanwhile, GO sheets with hollow Pt-M NPs were reduced to graphene, and were assembled into Pt-M/GCM hydrogels by gelatinization process. The Pt-M/GCM (M = Ni, Co) electrocatalysts have a factor of 9.4-18.9 enhancement in electrocatalytic activity and higher durability toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), compared with those of commercial Pt/C catalyst. In detail, the mass activities for Pt-Ni/GCM and Pt-Co/GCM are 1.26 A mg_Pt^-1 and 1.79 A mg_Pt^-1, respectively; meanwhile, the corresponding specific activities are 1.03 and 2.08 mA cm^-2. The successful synthesis of such attractive materials paves the way to explore a series of porous materials in widespread applications.

Keywords: bimetallic nanoparticle; electrocatalyst; graphene cellular monolith; hollow structure; oxygen reduction reaction; porous architecture.