Caiqin Wang

Self-supported porous 2D AuCu triangular nanoprisms as model electrocatalysts for ethylene glycol and glycerol oxidation

Shape-controlled synthesis of self-supported metallic nanocrystals with abundant active surface areas is of vital importance for the design and fabrication of novel outstandingly excellent electrocatalysts. Motivated by this, we herein report our research in the synthesis of self-supported porous 2D AuCu triangular nanoprisms via a facile wet-chemical method. Owing to the attractive 2D triangular structure, bifunctional and electronic effects between Au and Cu, such unique Au1Cu1 nanoprisms exhibited extremely high catalytic activities towards ethylene glycol and glycerol electrooxidation with mass activities of 2873 and 2263 mA mgAu−1, which are 3.0 and 3.9-fold enhancements over those of pure Au (958 and 573 mA mgAu−1), respectively. We trust this strategy may be extended to the syntheses of other multimetallic nanocatalysts with such fascinating nanostructures and the as-obtained porous triangular nanoprisms can be well applied to serve as highly desirable anode catalysts for electrooxidation of ethylene glycol and glycerol.

One-pot fabrication of N-doped graphene supported dandelion-like PtRu nanocrystals as efficient and robust electrocatalysts towards formic acid oxidation

Engineering the architectures of metal nanocatalysts offers a valid approach for the development of electrocatalysts with greatly enhanced performances. Herein, we report the one-pot method to successfully fabricate the N-doped graphene (NG) supported dandelion-like PtRu nanocrystals. Such dandelion-like nanocrystals with different compositions can be readily tuned via the addition of different amounts of RuCl3. By virtue of the large accessible surface active areas, synergistic and electronic effect, as well as the successful introduction of NG, the as-obtained PtRu/NG with optimized compositions display outstandingly high electrocatalytic activity towards formic acid electrooxidation with the mass and specific activities of 1857.4mAmg-1 and 18.3mAcm-2, 6.3 and 3.3 times higher than those of commercial Pt/C, respectively. Moreover, the Pt1Ru1/NG can endure at least 500 cycles with less activity decay, showing a new class of Pt-based electrocatalysts with enhanced performance for fuel cells and beyond.

Phosphorus-doped cobalt-iron oxyhydroxide with untrafine nanosheet structure enable efficient oxygen evolution electrocatalysis

Although explosive progresses have been achieved in the field of water splitting, the design and development of stable and inexpensive electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution remain a formidable challenge. Herein, the cost-efficient two dimensional (2D) phosphorus-doped CoFe oxyhydroxide nanosheets (denoted as CoFeP NSs) are successfully engineered and showing exceptional oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity and chemical stability in 1u202fM KOH solution. This unique 2D nanosheet structure facilitates the mass transfer and electron transport, resulting in the remarkable OER activity that delivers a current density of 10u202fmAu202fcm-2 at a low overpotential of 305u202fmV with an ultra-small Tafel slope 49.6u202fmV/dec. More significantly, the doped P also plays a vital role in modulating the surface active sites, leading to the substantial enhancement of electrocatalytic performances. Our study provides a facile one-pot method for the successful fabrication of 2D P-doped CoFe NSs which display superior electrocatalytic performance, shedding great promise for environment and energy-related fields.