Pt Atomic Layers with Tensile Strain and Rich Defects Boost Ethanol Electrooxidation

Yuanjun Chen; Jiajing Pei; Zhe Chen; Ang Li; Shufang Ji; Hongpan Rong; Qian Xu; Tao Wang; Aojie Zhang; Haolin Tang; Junfa Zhu; Xiaodong Han; Zhongbin Zhuang; Gang Zhou; Dingsheng Wang

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c02572

Pt Atomic Layers with Tensile Strain and Rich Defects Boost Ethanol Electrooxidation

Nano Lett. 2022 Sep 28;22(18):7563-7571. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c02572. Epub 2022 Sep 14.

Authors

Yuanjun Chen¹, Jiajing Pei², Zhe Chen³, Ang Li⁴, Shufang Ji¹, Hongpan Rong⁵, Qian Xu⁶, Tao Wang³, Aojie Zhang⁷, Haolin Tang⁷, Junfa Zhu⁶, Xiaodong Han⁴, Zhongbin Zhuang², Gang Zhou⁸, Dingsheng Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
² State Key Lab of Organic-Inorganic Composites and Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China.
³ Center of Artificial Photosynthesis for Solar Fuels, School of Science, Westlake University, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou 310024, Zhejiang Province China.
⁴ Beijing Key Laboratory of Microstructure and Property of Advanced Materials, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100024, China.
⁵ Beijing Key Laboratory of Construction-Tailorable Advanced Functional Materials and Green Applications, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
⁶ National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230029, China.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
⁸ School of Science, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan 430068, China.

PMID: 36103215
DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c02572

Abstract

Surface and strain engineering are two effective strategies to improve performance; however, synergetic controls of surface and strain effects remains a grand challenge. Herein, we report a highly efficient and stable electrocatalyst with defect-rich Pt atomic layers coating an ordered Pt₃Sn intermetallic core. Pt atomic layers enable the generation of 4.4% tensile strain along the [001] direction. Benefiting from synergetic controls of surface and strain engineering, Pt atomic-layer catalyst (Pt_atomic-layer) achieves a remarkable enhancement on ethanol electrooxidation performance with excellent specific activity of 5.83 mA cm^-2 and mass activity of 1166.6 mA mg _Pt^-1, which is 10.6 and 3.6 times higher than the commercial Pt/C, respectively. Moreover, the intermetallic core endows Pt_atomic-layer with outstanding durability. In situ infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy as well as density functional theory calculations reveal that tensile strain and rich defects of Pt_atomci-layer facilitate to break C-C bond for complete ethanol oxidation for enhanced performance.

Keywords: Atomic layer; ethanol electrooxidation; strain engineering; surface engineering.