Embedding oxophilic rare-earth single atom in platinum nanoclusters for efficient hydrogen electro-oxidation

作者：Xiaoning Wang, Yanfu Tong, Wenting Feng, Pengyun Liu, Xuejin Li, Yongpeng Cui, Tonghui Cai, Lianming Zhao, Qingzhong Xue, Zifeng Yan, Xun Feng Yuan, Wei Xing · 发表于：Nature Communications · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1038/s41467-023-39475-5 · 被引用次数：204 · 研究领域：Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion、Catalytic Processes in Materials Science、Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques

Abstract Designing Pt-based electrocatalysts with high catalytic activity and CO tolerance is challenging but extremely desirable for alkaline hydrogen oxidation reaction. Herein we report the design of a series of single-atom lanthanide (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, and Lu)-embedded ultrasmall Pt nanoclusters for efficient alkaline hydrogen electro-oxidation catalysis based on vapor filling and spatially confined reduction/growth of metal species. Mechanism studies reveal that oxophilic single-atom lanthanide species in Pt nanoclusters can serve as the Lewis acid site for selective OH - adsorption and regulate the binding strength of intermediates on Pt sites, which promotes the kinetics of hydrogen oxidation and CO oxidation by accelerating the combination of OH − and *H/*CO in kinetics and thermodynamics, endowing the electrocatalyst with up to 14.3-times higher mass activity than commercial Pt/C and enhanced CO tolerance. This work may shed light on the design of metal nanocluster-based electrocatalysts for energy conversion.