Single platinum atoms anchored on N-doped carbon materials composed of bipyridine as efficient hydrogen evolution electrocatalysts

Abstract

Metal–support compatibility is required for single atom catalysts (SACs) with structural durability and high catalytic activity, and is challenging to achieve in terms of coordination configuration design and metal precursor screening. In this work, we present Pt single atom anchored N-doped carbon materials composed of bipyridine and carbon nanoparticles which exhibit high catalytic activity in acidic media for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The optimal SAC with a Pt loading density of 2.61 wt% shows a low overpotential of 54 mV and a low Tafel slope of 29 mV dec⁻¹, competing with those of commercial 20 wt% Pt/C. The corresponding mass activity is more than 5 times higher than that of Pt/C. Moreover, potassium tetrachloroplatinate is found to be a favorable precursor for Pt loading due to it having the strongest binding energy on the anchoring sites revealed using density functional theory calculations. This research emphasizes the significance of metal–support compatibility in the pursuit of high performance SACs.