Pt-O bond as an active site superior to Pt0 in hydrogen evolution reaction

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 490
• Main Authors: Yu, Fei-Yang, Lang, Zhong-Ling, Yin, Li-Ying, Feng, Kun, Xia, Yu-Jian, Tan, Hua-Qiao, Zhu, Hao-Tian, Zhong, Jun, Kang, Zhen-Hui, Li, Yang-Guang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 24-01-2020; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 140/133; 140/146; 140/58; 147/135; 147/137; 147/143; 639/301/299/886; 639/4077/909/4086/4087; 639/638/161/886; 639/638/263; Carbon neutrality; Catalysts; Evolution; Experiments; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydrogen; Hydrogen evolution reactions; Laboratories; multidisciplinary; Platinum; Polyoxometallates; Radiation; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Synchrotron radiation
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-14274-z

The oxidized platinum (Pt) can exhibit better electrocatalytic activity than metallic Pt
0
in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), which has aroused great interest in exploring the role of oxygen in Pt-based catalysts. Herein, we select two structurally well-defined polyoxometalates Na
5
[H
3
Pt
(IV)
W
6
O
24
] (PtW
6
O
24
) and Na
3
K
5
[Pt
(II)
2
(W
5
O
18
)
2
] (Pt
2
(W
5
O
18
)
2
) as the platinum oxide model to investigate the HER performance. Electrocatalytic experiments show the mass activities of PtW
6
O
24
/C and Pt
2
(W
5
O
18
)
2
/C are 20.175 A mg
−1
and 10.976 A mg
−1
at 77 mV, respectively, which are better than that of commercial 20% Pt/C (0.398 A mg
−1
). The in situ synchrotron radiation experiments and DFT calculations suggest that the elongated Pt-O bond acts as the active site during the HER process, which can accelerate the coupling of proton and electron and the rapid release of H
2
. This work complements the knowledge boundary of Pt-based electrocatalytic HER, and suggests another way to update the state-of-the-art electrocatalyst.
While converting water to H
2
with a catalyst offers a renewable means to produce carbon-neutral fuels, understanding the catalytic active sites has proven challenging. Here, authors show a structurally well-defined model complex with Pt-O bonding to enable efficient H
2
evolution electrocatalysis.