Issue 13, 2019

Precursor-mediated size tuning of monodisperse PtRh nanocubes as efficient electrocatalysts for ethylene glycol oxidation

Abstract

The tailoring and design of electrocatalysts, such as Pt-based nanocubes (NCs) covered by {100} facets, have received extensive attention in the past decade; however, studies on the facile yet precise synthesis of PtRh NCs with different sizes have rarely been reported up till now. Herein, a reliable method is reported for the first time to synthesize PtRh-small (PtRh-S) and PtRh-large (PtRh-L) NCs with the different sizes of 5.5 and 10.5 nm by introducing rhodium acetate and rhodium chloride, respectively. In particular, to the best of our knowledge, the PtRh-S NCs are the smallest synthesized PtRh NCs reported to date. We demonstrated that the {100} facet-covered PtRh NCs showed much better catalytic activity and stability than the {100}-terminated pure Pt NCs towards the ethylene glycol oxidation reaction (EGOR). Specifically, the size-optimized PtRh-S NCs show a much higher mass and specific activity (5125.0 mA mg−1 and 11.6 mA cm−2) for EGOR, which are 4.2 and 2.0 and 4.7 and 6.4-fold higher than those of the Pt NCs and Pt/C catalysts, respectively. The monodisperse nanocubic structure, ultra-small size and alloy effect led to the enhanced electrocatalytic behaviors. The present study describes the rational synthesis of size-controlled PtRh NCs and further provides a promising reference for the effective manipulation of other cubic nanocatalysts for applications in fuel cells and so forth.

Graphical abstract: Precursor-mediated size tuning of monodisperse PtRh nanocubes as efficient electrocatalysts for ethylene glycol oxidation

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
28 Jan 2019
Accepted
26 Feb 2019
First published
27 Feb 2019

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2019,7, 7891-7896

Precursor-mediated size tuning of monodisperse PtRh nanocubes as efficient electrocatalysts for ethylene glycol oxidation

F. Gao, Y. Zhang, P. Song, J. Wang, T. Song, C. Wang, L. Song, Y. Shiraishi and Y. Du, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2019, 7, 7891 DOI: 10.1039/C9TA01071H

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