Electrocatalysis on Platinum Nanoparticles: Particle Size Effect on Oxygen Reduction Reaction Activity

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 11; no. 9; pp. 3714 - 3719
• Main Authors: Shao, Minhua, Peles, Amra, Shoemaker, Krista
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 14-09-2011
• Subjects: Adsorption; Catalysis; Catalytic activity; Chemistry; Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Density functional theory; Electrocatalysis; Electrochemistry - methods; Electron states; Exact sciences and technology; Hydrogen - chemistry; Materials Science; Mathematical analysis; Methods of electronic structure calculations; Nanocrystalline materials; Nanoparticles; Nanoparticles - chemistry; Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization; Nanostructure; Nanotechnology - methods; Oxygen - chemistry; Particle Size; Physics; Platinum; Platinum - chemistry; Reduction; Science & Technology - Other Topics; Electrochemistry; fuel cells; density functional theory calculations; heterogeneous catalysis; monolayers; Nanoparticles; Electrocatalysis; Particle size; Platinum; Binding energy; Size effect; Theoretical study; Density functional method; Catalyst activity; Nanostructured materials
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/nl2017459

We determined the size-dependent specific and mass activities of the oxygen reduction in HClO4 solutions on the Pt particles in the range of 1–5 nm. The maximal mass activity at 2.2 nm is well explained based on density functional theory calculations performed on fully relaxed nanoparticles. The presence of the edge sites is the main reason for the low specific activity in nanoparticles due to very strong oxygen binding energies at these sites. Our results clearly demonstrate that the catalytic activity highly depends on the shape and size of the nanoparticles.