Issue

Vol. 15 (2023)

Electrochemically Grown Ultrathin Platinum Nanosheet Electrodes with Ultralow Loadings for Energy-Saving and Industrial-Level Hydrogen Evolution

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-023-01117-2
Lei Ding
Nanodynamics and High‑Efficiency Lab for Propulsion and Power, Department of Mechanical, Aerospace & Biomedical Engineering, UT Space Institute (University of Tennessee-Knoxville), Tullahoma, TN 37388, USA
Zhiqiang Xie
Nanodynamics and High‑Efficiency Lab for Propulsion and Power, Department of Mechanical, Aerospace & Biomedical Engineering, UT Space Institute (University of Tennessee-Knoxville), Tullahoma, TN 37388, USA
Shule Yu
Nanodynamics and High‑Efficiency Lab for Propulsion and Power, Department of Mechanical, Aerospace & Biomedical Engineering, UT Space Institute (University of Tennessee-Knoxville), Tullahoma, TN 37388, USA
Weitian Wang
Nanodynamics and High‑Efficiency Lab for Propulsion and Power, Department of Mechanical, Aerospace & Biomedical Engineering, UT Space Institute (University of Tennessee-Knoxville), Tullahoma, TN 37388, USA
Alexander Y. Terekhov
Center for Laser Applications, UT Space Institute (University of Tennessee-Knoxville), Tullahoma, TN 37388, USA
Brian K. Canfield
Center for Laser Applications, UT Space Institute (University of Tennessee-Knoxville), Tullahoma, TN 37388, USA
Christopher B. Capuano
Nel Hydrogen, Wallingford, CT 06492, USA
Alex Keane
Nel Hydrogen, Wallingford, CT 06492, USA
Kathy Ayers
Nel Hydrogen, Wallingford, CT 06492, USA
David A. Cullen
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
Feng‑Yuan Zhang
Nanodynamics and High‑Efficiency Lab for Propulsion and Power, Department of Mechanical, Aerospace & Biomedical Engineering, UT Space Institute (University of Tennessee-Knoxville), Tullahoma, TN 37388, USA
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2535-0966

Corresponding Author: Feng‑Yuan Zhang

fzhang@utk.edu

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 15 (2023), Article Number: 144

Abstract

Nanostructured catalyst-integrated electrodes with remarkably reduced catalyst loadings, high catalyst utilization and facile fabrication are urgently needed to enable cost-effective, green hydrogen production via proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells (PEMECs). Herein, benefitting from a thin seeding layer, bottom-up grown ultrathin Pt nanosheets (Pt-NSs) were first deposited on thin Ti substrates for PEMECs via a fast, template- and surfactant-free electrochemical growth process at room temperature, showing highly uniform Pt surface coverage with ultralow loadings and vertically well-aligned nanosheet morphologies. Combined with an anode-only Nafion 117 catalyst-coated membrane (CCM), the Pt-NS electrode with an ultralow loading of 0.015 mgPt cm−2 demonstrates superior cell performance to the commercial CCM (3.0 mgPt cm−2), achieving 99.5% catalyst savings and more than 237-fold higher catalyst utilization. The remarkable performance with high catalyst utilization is mainly due to the vertically well-aligned ultrathin nanosheets with good surface coverage exposing abundant active sites for the electrochemical reaction. Overall, this study not only paves a new way for optimizing the catalyst uniformity and surface coverage with ultralow loadings but also provides new insights into nanostructured electrode design and facile fabrication for highly efficient and low-cost PEMECs and other energy storage/conversion devices.


Highlights:


1 4-nm-thick Pt nanosheets (Pt-NSs) are electrochemically grown on Ti substrates for hydrogen evolution reactions.
2 Highly uniform Pt-NS surface coverage with an ultralow loading of 0.015 mgPt cm−2 is achieved.
3 99.5% catalyst savings and about 237-fold higher catalyst utilization are demonstrated.

Keywords

Seeding layer Electrochemically grown Pt nanosheet Ultralow loadings High catalyst utilization Hydrogen evolution
Ding, Lei, Zhiqiang Xie, Shule Yu, Weitian Wang, Alexander Y. Terekhov, Brian K. Canfield, Christopher B. Capuano, Alex Keane, Kathy Ayers, David A. Cullen, and Feng‑Yuan Zhang. 2023. “Electrochemically Grown Ultrathin Platinum Nanosheet Electrodes With Ultralow Loadings for Energy-Saving and Industrial-Level Hydrogen Evolution”. Nano-Micro Letters 15 (June):144. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-023-01117-2.
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