Compressed Intermetallic PdCu for Enhanced Electrocatalysis
Abstract
Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a key reaction in hydrogen production through water electrolysis. Platinum (Pt) is the best-known element for HER catalysis. Due to the scarcity of Pt, the development of non-Pt nanocatalysts is desired to achieve broad scale implementations. Here we demonstrate that the PdCu nanostructure containing an intermetallic B2 phase (PdCu-B2) shows a smaller Tafel slope, higher exchange current density, and lower overpotential for HER compared to commercial Pt/C in acidic conditions. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations demonstrate that the improved HER performance in acidic conditions can be attributed to the decrease in the hydrogen binding energy (HBE) on the compressed intermetallic PdCu-B2, shifting the HBE to a more optimal position even compared to Pt/C. In addition, PdCu-B2 exhibits the highest mass activity toward the formic acid oxidation reaction, making it a good anode catalyst candidate for formic-acid-based fuel cells.
Additional Information
© 2020 American Chemical Society. Received: September 14, 2020; Accepted: October 26, 2020; Published: November 3, 2020. Y.H., W.A.G., Z.Z., and M.F.E. acknowledge the support from Office of Naval Research (N000141812155). T.C. was supported by the Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science & Technology, the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD) and the 111 Project. W.A.G. was supported by the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, a DOE Energy Innovation Hub, supported through the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Award No. DE-SC0004993. This work used the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) which is supported by National Science Foundation Grant No. ACI-1548562. The work at UC Irvine was supported by the National Science Foundation with Grants CBET 1159240, DMR1420620, and DMR-1506535. TEM work on JEM Grand ARM was conducted using the facilities in the Irvine Materials Research Institute (IMRI) at the University of California Irvine. The authors declare no competing financial interest.Attached Files
Supplemental Material - nz0c01959_si_001.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 106405
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20201103-135137512
- Office of Naval Research (ONR)
- N000141812155
- Suzhou Nano Science and Technology
- Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions
- 111 Project of China
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- DE-SC0004993
- NSF
- ACI-1548562
- NSF
- CBET-1159240
- NSF
- DMR-1420620
- NSF
- DMR-1506535
- Created
-
2020-11-04Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- JCAP
- Other Numbering System Name
- WAG
- Other Numbering System Identifier
- 1396