In Situ Anchoring Polymetallic Phosphide Nanoparticles within Porous Prussian Blue Analogue Nanocages for Boosting Oxygen Evolution Catalysis

Guangxun Zhang; Yanle Li; Xiao Xiao; Yang Shan; Yang Bai; Huai-Guo Xue; Huan Pang; Ziqi Tian; Qiang Xu

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00179

In Situ Anchoring Polymetallic Phosphide Nanoparticles within Porous Prussian Blue Analogue Nanocages for Boosting Oxygen Evolution Catalysis

Nano Lett. 2021 Apr 14;21(7):3016-3025. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00179. Epub 2021 Mar 26.

Authors

Guangxun Zhang¹, Yanle Li², Xiao Xiao¹, Yang Shan¹, Yang Bai¹, Huai-Guo Xue¹, Huan Pang¹, Ziqi Tian², Qiang Xu^{1

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225009, Jiangsu, P.R. China.
² Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, Zhejiang, P.R. China.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, SUSTech Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), Shenzhen 518055, P.R. China.
⁴ Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS), Kyoto University, Yoshida, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan.

PMID: 33769812
DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00179

Abstract

The controllable synthesis of metal-based nanoclusters for heterogeneous catalytic reactions has received considerable attention. Nevertheless, manufacturing these architectures, while avoiding aggregation and retaining surface activity, remains challenging. Herein, for the first time we designed NiCoFe-Prussian blue analogue (PBA) nanocages as a support for in situ dispersion and anchoring of polymetallic phosphide nanoparticles (pMP-NPs). Benefiting from the porous surfaces and the synergistic effects between pMP-NPs and the cyano groups in PBA, the NiCoFe-P-NP@NiCoFe-PBA nanocages exhibit a significantly enhanced catalytic activity for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with an overpotential of 223 mV at 10 mA cm^-2 and a Tafel slope of 78 mV dec^-1, outperforming the NiCoFe-PBA nanocubes, NiCoFe-P nanocages, NiFe-P-NP@NiFe-PBA nanocubes, and CoFe-P-NP@CoFe-PBA nanoboxes. This work not only offers the synthesis strategy of in situ anchoring pMP-NPs on PBA nanocages but also provides a new insight into optimized Gibbs free energy of OER by regulating electron transfer from metallic phosphides to PBA substrate.

Keywords: controlled synthesis; in situ anchoring; oxygen evolution catalysis; polymetallic phosphide nanoparticles; porous Prussian blue analogue nanocages.