Sub-Monolayer YOx /MoOx on Ultrathin Pt Nanowires Boosts Alcohol Oxidation Electrocatalysis

Menggang Li; Zhonglong Zhao; Weiyu Zhang; Mingchuan Luo; Lu Tao; Yingjun Sun; Zhonghong Xia; Yuguang Chao; Kun Yin; Qinghua Zhang; Lin Gu; Weiwei Yang; Yongsheng Yu; Gang Lu; Shaojun Guo

doi:10.1002/adma.202103762

Sub-Monolayer YO_x /MoO_x on Ultrathin Pt Nanowires Boosts Alcohol Oxidation Electrocatalysis

Adv Mater. 2021 Oct;33(41):e2103762. doi: 10.1002/adma.202103762. Epub 2021 Aug 22.

Authors

Menggang Li^{1

2}, Zhonglong Zhao^{3

4}, Weiyu Zhang², Mingchuan Luo², Lu Tao², Yingjun Sun², Zhonghong Xia², Yuguang Chao², Kun Yin², Qinghua Zhang⁵, Lin Gu⁵, Weiwei Yang¹, Yongsheng Yu¹, Gang Lu⁴, Shaojun Guo^{2

6}

Affiliations

¹ MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang, 150001, China.
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
³ School of Physical Science and Technology, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, 010021, China.
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, California State University Northridge, Northridge, CA, 91330, USA.
⁵ Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
⁶ BIC-ESAT, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.

PMID: 34423488
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202103762

Abstract

A crucial issue restricting the application of direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs) is the low activity of Pt-based electrocatalysts for alcohol oxidation reaction caused by the reaction intermediate (CO*) poisoning. Herein, a new strategy is demonstrated for making a class of sub-monolayer YO_x /MoO_x -surface co-decorated ultrathin platinum nanowires (YO_x /MoO_x -Pt NWs) to effectively eliminate the CO poisoning for enhancing methanol oxidation electrocatalysis. By adjusting the amounts of YO_x and MoO_x decorated on the surface of ultrathin Pt NWs, the optimized 22% YO_x /MoO_x -Pt NWs achieve a high specific activity of 3.35 mA cm^-2 and a mass activity of 2.10 A mg_Pt ^-1 , as well as the enhanced stability. In situ Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and CO stripping studies confirm the contribution of YO_x and MoO_x to anti-CO poisoning ability of the NWs. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations further reveal that the surface Y and Mo atoms with oxidation states allow COOH* to bind the surface through both the carbon and oxygen atoms, which can lower the free energy barriers for the oxidation of CO* into COOH*. The optimal NWs also show the superior activities toward the electro-oxidation of ethanol, ethylene glycol, and glycerol.

Keywords: decoupling mechanism; electrocatalysis; methanol oxidation reaction; surface decoration; ultrathin nanowires.

Abstract

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