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Nano Research 2021, 14(8): 2762-2769 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-3281-z
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 29 December 2020

Electrochemical top-down synthesis of C-supported Pt nanoparticles with controllable shape and size: Mechanistic insights and application

Show Author's Information Batyr Garlyyev1,§( ),  Sebastian Watzele1,§,  Johannes Fichtner1,§,  Jan Michalička2,  Alexander Schökel3,  Anatoliy Senyshyn4,  Andrea Perego5,  Dingjie Pan6,  Hany A. El-Sayed7,  Jan M. Macak2,  Plamen Atanassov5,6,  Iryna V. Zenyuk5,6( ),  Aliaksandr S. Bandarenka1( )
Physics of Energy Conversion and Storage, Technical University of Munich, James Franck Straße 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
Central European Institute of Technology, Brno University of Technology, Purkynova 123, 61200 Brno, Czech Republic
Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestr. 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany
Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Zentrum (MLZ), Technische Universität München, Lichtenbergstr. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Fuel Cell Research Center, University of California, Irvine, 92697-2580 California, USA
Department of Material Science and Engineering, University of California, Irvine, 92697-2580 California, USA
Chair of Technical Electrochemistry, Technical University of Munich, Lichtenbergstraße 4, 85748 Garching, Germany

§ Batyr Garlyyev, Sebastian Watzele, and Johannes Fichtner contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
oxygen reduction reaction, nanoparticles, platinum, electrochemical synthesis
Topics:
CatalystsElectrolytesElectrolytic reduction NanoparticlesOxygen reduction reaction Particle size
Cite this article:
Garlyyev B, Watzele S, Fichtner J, et al. Electrochemical top-down synthesis of C-supported Pt nanoparticles with controllable shape and size: Mechanistic insights and application. Nano Research, 2021, 14(8): 2762-2769. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-3281-z
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

In this work, we demonstrate the power of a simple top-down electrochemical erosion approach to obtain Pt nanoparticle with controlled shapes and sizes (in the range from ~ 2 to ~ 10 nm). Carbon supported nanoparticles with narrow size distributions have been synthesized by applying an alternating voltage to macroscopic bulk platinum structures, such as disks or wires. Without using any surfactants, the size and shape of the particles can be changed by adjusting simple parameters such as the applied potential, frequency and electrolyte composition. For instance, application of a sinusoidal AC voltage with lower frequencies results in cubic nanoparticles; whereas higher frequencies lead to predominantly spherical nanoparticles. On the other hand, the amplitude of the sinusoidal signal was found to affect the particle size; the lower the amplitude of the applied AC signal, the smaller the resulting particle size. Pt/C catalysts prepared by this approach showed 0.76 A/mg mass activity towards the oxygen reduction reaction which is ~ 2 times higher than the state-of-the-art commercial Pt/C catalyst (0.42 A/mg) from Tanaka. In addition to this, we discussed the mechanistic insights about the nanoparticle formation pathways.


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About this article

Electrochemical top-down synthesis of C-supported Pt nanoparticles with controllable shape and size: Mechanistic insights and application

Show Author's information Batyr Garlyyev1,§( ), Sebastian Watzele1,§, Johannes Fichtner1,§, Jan Michalička2, Alexander Schökel3, Anatoliy Senyshyn4, Andrea Perego5, Dingjie Pan6, Hany A. El-Sayed7, Jan M. Macak2, Plamen Atanassov5,6, Iryna V. Zenyuk5,6( ), Aliaksandr S. Bandarenka1( )
Physics of Energy Conversion and Storage, Technical University of Munich, James Franck Straße 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
Central European Institute of Technology, Brno University of Technology, Purkynova 123, 61200 Brno, Czech Republic
Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestr. 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany
Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Zentrum (MLZ), Technische Universität München, Lichtenbergstr. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Fuel Cell Research Center, University of California, Irvine, 92697-2580 California, USA
Department of Material Science and Engineering, University of California, Irvine, 92697-2580 California, USA
Chair of Technical Electrochemistry, Technical University of Munich, Lichtenbergstraße 4, 85748 Garching, Germany

§ Batyr Garlyyev, Sebastian Watzele, and Johannes Fichtner contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

In this work, we demonstrate the power of a simple top-down electrochemical erosion approach to obtain Pt nanoparticle with controlled shapes and sizes (in the range from ~ 2 to ~ 10 nm). Carbon supported nanoparticles with narrow size distributions have been synthesized by applying an alternating voltage to macroscopic bulk platinum structures, such as disks or wires. Without using any surfactants, the size and shape of the particles can be changed by adjusting simple parameters such as the applied potential, frequency and electrolyte composition. For instance, application of a sinusoidal AC voltage with lower frequencies results in cubic nanoparticles; whereas higher frequencies lead to predominantly spherical nanoparticles. On the other hand, the amplitude of the sinusoidal signal was found to affect the particle size; the lower the amplitude of the applied AC signal, the smaller the resulting particle size. Pt/C catalysts prepared by this approach showed 0.76 A/mg mass activity towards the oxygen reduction reaction which is ~ 2 times higher than the state-of-the-art commercial Pt/C catalyst (0.42 A/mg) from Tanaka. In addition to this, we discussed the mechanistic insights about the nanoparticle formation pathways.

Keywords: oxygen reduction reaction, nanoparticles, platinum, electrochemical synthesis

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Publication history
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Publication history

Received: 21 October 2020
Revised: 24 November 2020
Accepted: 02 December 2020
Published: 29 December 2020
Issue date: August 2021

Copyright

© The Author(s) 2020

Acknowledgements

The financial support from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under Germany’s excellence strategy - EXC 2089/1 - 390776260, Germany’s excellence cluster "e-conversion" , DFG project BA 5795/4-1, and funding from the TUM IGSSE project 11.01 are gratefully acknowledged. We also acknowledge DESY (Hamburg, Germany), a member of the Helmholtz Association HGF, for the provision of experimental facilities. Parts of this research were carried out at PETRA III using beamline P02.1. We acknowledge CzechNanoLab Research Infrastructure supported by MEYS CR (LM2018110) and CEITEC Nano Research Infrastructure for TEM measurements. We thank Mr. Shujin Hou for assisting with powder XRD measurements.

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