Nanostructured catalyst-integrated electrodes with remarkably reduced catalyst loadings,high catalyst utilization and facile fabrication are urgently needed to enable cost-effective,green hydrogen production via proto...Nanostructured catalyst-integrated electrodes with remarkably reduced catalyst loadings,high catalyst utilization and facile fabrication are urgently needed to enable cost-effective,green hydrogen production via proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells(PEMECs).Herein,benefitting from a thin seeding layer,bottom-up grown ultrathin Pt nanosheets(Pt-NSs)were first deposited on thin Ti substrates for PEMECs via a fast,template-and surfactant-free electrochemical growth process at room temperature,showing highly uniform Pt surface coverage with ultralow loadings and vertically well-aligned nanosheet morphologies.Combined with an anode-only Nafion 117 catalyst-coated membrane(CCM),the Pt-NS electrode with an ultralow loading of 0.015 mgPt cm−2 demonstrates superior cell performance to the commercial CCM(3.0 mgPt cm^(−2)),achieving 99.5%catalyst savings and more than 237-fold higher catalyst utilization.The remarkable performance with high catalyst utilization is mainly due to the vertically well-aligned ultrathin nanosheets with good surface coverage exposing abundant active sites for the electrochemical reaction.Overall,this study not only paves a new way for optimizing the catalyst uniformity and surface coverage with ultralow loadings but also provides new insights into nanostructured electrode design and facile fabrication for highly efficient and low-cost PEMECs and other energy storage/conversion devices.展开更多
基金The authors greatly appreciate the support from the U.S.Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy(EERE)under the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office Awards DE-EE0008426 and DE-EE0008423National Energy Technology Laboratory under Award DEFE0011585.
文摘Nanostructured catalyst-integrated electrodes with remarkably reduced catalyst loadings,high catalyst utilization and facile fabrication are urgently needed to enable cost-effective,green hydrogen production via proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells(PEMECs).Herein,benefitting from a thin seeding layer,bottom-up grown ultrathin Pt nanosheets(Pt-NSs)were first deposited on thin Ti substrates for PEMECs via a fast,template-and surfactant-free electrochemical growth process at room temperature,showing highly uniform Pt surface coverage with ultralow loadings and vertically well-aligned nanosheet morphologies.Combined with an anode-only Nafion 117 catalyst-coated membrane(CCM),the Pt-NS electrode with an ultralow loading of 0.015 mgPt cm−2 demonstrates superior cell performance to the commercial CCM(3.0 mgPt cm^(−2)),achieving 99.5%catalyst savings and more than 237-fold higher catalyst utilization.The remarkable performance with high catalyst utilization is mainly due to the vertically well-aligned ultrathin nanosheets with good surface coverage exposing abundant active sites for the electrochemical reaction.Overall,this study not only paves a new way for optimizing the catalyst uniformity and surface coverage with ultralow loadings but also provides new insights into nanostructured electrode design and facile fabrication for highly efficient and low-cost PEMECs and other energy storage/conversion devices.
