TY - JOUR
T1 - Nature of Highly Active Electrocatalytic Sites for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction at Pt Electrodes in Acidic Media
AU - Pohl, Marcus D.
AU - Watzele, Sebastian
AU - Calle-Vallejo, Federico
AU - Bandarenka, Aliaksandr S.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2017/11/30
Y1 - 2017/11/30
N2 - The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is one of the two processes in electrolytic water splitting. Known for more than two centuries, the HER still receives great attention in fundamental and applied science in view of its apparent simplicity (only two electrons are transferred), fast kinetics in acidic media, and promising technological applications in electrolyzers. However, the exact nature of active catalytic sites for this reaction is often uncertain, especially at nonuniform metal electrodes. Identification of such centers is important, as the HER will probably be central in future energy provision schemes, and it is simultaneously a convenient model reaction to study structure-composition-activity relations in catalysis. In this work, using simple coordination-activity considerations, we outline the location and geometric configuration of the active sites at various model Pt single-crystal electrodes. We show that when the coordination of such surface sites is optimized and their density at the surface is maximized, the experimental-specific HER activities are among the highest reported in the literature for pure platinum with a well-defined surface structure under similar conditions.
AB - The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is one of the two processes in electrolytic water splitting. Known for more than two centuries, the HER still receives great attention in fundamental and applied science in view of its apparent simplicity (only two electrons are transferred), fast kinetics in acidic media, and promising technological applications in electrolyzers. However, the exact nature of active catalytic sites for this reaction is often uncertain, especially at nonuniform metal electrodes. Identification of such centers is important, as the HER will probably be central in future energy provision schemes, and it is simultaneously a convenient model reaction to study structure-composition-activity relations in catalysis. In this work, using simple coordination-activity considerations, we outline the location and geometric configuration of the active sites at various model Pt single-crystal electrodes. We show that when the coordination of such surface sites is optimized and their density at the surface is maximized, the experimental-specific HER activities are among the highest reported in the literature for pure platinum with a well-defined surface structure under similar conditions.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85048451708&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acsomega.7b01126
DO - 10.1021/acsomega.7b01126
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85048451708
SN - 2470-1343
VL - 2
SP - 8141
EP - 8147
JO - ACS Omega
JF - ACS Omega
IS - 11
ER -