Highly Utilized Active Sites on Pt@Cu/C for Ethanol Electrocatalytic Oxidation in Alkali Metal Hydroxide Solutions

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Chenjie Han - , CAS - Institute of Process Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Author)
  • Yeqing Lyu - , CAS - Institute of Process Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Author)
  • Shaona Wang - , CAS - Institute of Process Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Author)
  • Biao Liu - , CAS - Institute of Process Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Author)
  • Yi Zhang - , CAS - Institute of Process Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Author)
  • Jan J. Weigand - , Central Unit at the Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, Chair of Inorganic Molecular Chemistry, TUD Dresden University of Technology (Author)
  • Hao Du - , CAS - Institute of Process Engineering (Author)
  • Jun Lu - , Zhejiang University (Author)

Abstract

Using ethanol electrocatalytic oxidation reaction (EOR) with a lower reaction potential to replace oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and integrating hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) have a promising development prospect for more energy-saving electrolytic hydrogen production. However, the main challenges of EOR are insufficient catalytic activity, high overpotential, and slow kinetics. Active sites on the electrocatalysts surface are occupied by alkali metal ion hydrate clusters by noncovalent interactions, which is considered to be one of the major causes of these challenges. To reduce the effect of the noncovalent interactions on the catalytic activity of the electrocatalyst, copper is chosen and doped in the form of a single atom in the electrocatalyst (Pt@Cu/C) to increase the electrocatalyst conductivity and make the anode contain more positive charge in this study. Then, alkali metal ion hydrate clusters are difficult to adsorb at the active site of Pt@Cu/C. The EOR electrocatalytic activity of Pt@Cu/C is up to 8184 mA mgPt−1, which is ≈4.8 times as high as that of Pt/C. The two-electrode hydrogen production device using Pt@Cu/C as anode for coupled EOR&HER requires a smaller voltage of 0.60 V to reach 10 mA cm−2 compared with that of Pt/C (0.76 V).

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number2305436
JournalAdvanced functional materials
Volume33
Issue number46
Publication statusPublished - 9 Nov 2023
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0001-7323-7816/work/163295521

Keywords

Sustainable Development Goals

Keywords

  • active sites, catalytic activity, ethanol electrocatalytic oxidation reaction, hydrogen evolution reaction, hydrogen generation