skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Roles of Mo Surface Dopants in Enhancing the ORR Performance of Octahedral PtNi Nanoparticles

Journal Article · · Nano Letters

Doping with a transition metal was recently shown to greatly boost the activity and durability of PtNi/C octahedral nanoparticles (NPs) for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), but its specific roles remain unclear. By combining electrochemistry, ex situ and in situ spectroscopic techniques, density functional theory calculations, and a newly developed kinetic Monte Carlo model, we showed that Mo atoms are preferentially located on the vertex and edge sites of Mo–PtNi/C in the form of oxides, which are stable within the wide potential window of the electrochemical cycle. These surface Mo oxides stabilize adjacent Pt sites, hereby stabilizing the octahedral shape enriched with (111) facets, and lead to increased concentration of Ni in subsurface layers where they are protected against acid dissolution. Consequently, the favorable Pt3Ni(111) structure for the ORR is stabilized on the surface of PtNi/C NPs in acid against voltage cycling. Significantly, the unusual potential-dependent oxygen coverage trend on Mo-doped PtNi/C NPs as revealed by the surface-sensitive Δμ analysis suggests that the Mo dopants may also improve the ORR kinetics by modifying the coordination environments of Pt atoms on the surface. Lastly, our studies point out a possible way to stabilize the favorable shape and composition established on conceptual catalytic models in practical nanoscale catalysts.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012704
OSTI ID:
1436260
Report Number(s):
BNL-203613-2018-JAAM
Journal Information:
Nano Letters, Vol. 18, Issue 2; ISSN 1530-6984
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 128 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (45)

Improved Oxygen Reduction Activity on Pt3Ni(111) via Increased Surface Site Availability journal January 2007
Electrochemistry and the Future of the Automobile journal June 2010
High-performance transition metal-doped Pt3Ni octahedra for oxygen reduction reaction journal June 2015
Highly Crystalline Multimetallic Nanoframes with Three-Dimensional Electrocatalytic Surfaces journal February 2014
Compositional segregation in shaped Pt alloy nanoparticles and their structural behaviour during electrocatalysis journal June 2013
Anisotropic phase segregation and migration of Pt in nanocrystals en route to nanoframe catalysts journal August 2016
Synthesis and Characterization of 9 nm Pt–Ni Octahedra with a Record High Activity of 3.3 A/mg Pt for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction journal June 2013
A rational design of carbon-supported dispersive Pt-based octahedra as efficient oxygen reduction reaction catalysts journal January 2014
Circumventing Metal Dissolution Induced Degradation of Pt-Alloy Catalysts in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells: Revealing the Asymmetric Volcano Nature of Redox Catalysis journal January 2016
Record activity and stability of dealloyed bimetallic catalysts for proton exchange membrane fuel cells journal January 2015
Element-specific anisotropic growth of shaped platinum alloy nanocrystals journal December 2014
Dissolution of Ni from High Ni Content Pt1−xNix Alloys journal January 2011
Structural effects on trends in the deposition and dissolution of metal-supported metal adstructures journal August 2010
In situ STM observation of morphological changes of the Pt(111) electrode surface during potential cycling in 10 mM HF solution journal January 2010
Activity benchmarks and requirements for Pt, Pt-alloy, and non-Pt oxygen reduction catalysts for PEMFCs journal March 2005
Activity, Structure and Degradation of Dealloyed PtNi 3 Nanoparticle Electrocatalyst for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction in PEMFC journal January 2011
Theoretical Insights into the Effects of Oxidation and Mo-Doping on the Structure and Stability of Pt–Ni Nanoparticles journal November 2016
Rh-Doped Pt–Ni Octahedral Nanoparticles: Understanding the Correlation between Elemental Distribution, Oxygen Reduction Reaction, and Shape Stability journal February 2016
Molybdenum Doping Augments Platinum-Copper Oxygen Reduction Electrocatalyst journal December 2017
Self-Consistent Equations Including Exchange and Correlation Effects journal November 1965
Equation of State Calculations by Fast Computing Machines journal June 1953
Efficient kinetic Monte Carlo simulation journal February 2008
Physical time scale in kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of continuous-time Markov chains journal March 2011
Generalized cluster description of multicomponent systems journal November 1984
Bayesian approach to cluster expansions journal July 2009
Bifunctionality in Pt alloy nanocluster electrocatalysts for enhanced methanol oxidation and CO tolerance in PEM fuel cells: electrochemical and in situ synchrotron spectroscopy journal July 2002
X-Ray Interactions: Photoabsorption, Scattering, Transmission, and Reflection at E = 50-30,000 eV, Z = 1-92 journal July 1993
Carbon Monoxide-Induced Stability and Atomic Segregation Phenomena in Shape-Selected Octahedral PtNi Nanoparticles journal October 2015
Atomic Structure of Pt 3 Ni Nanoframe Electrocatalysts by in Situ X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy journal December 2015
Long-Range Segregation Phenomena in Shape-Selected Bimetallic Nanoparticles: Chemical State Effects journal September 2013
Activity Descriptor Identification for Oxygen Reduction on Platinum-Based Bimetallic Nanoparticles: In Situ Observation of the Linear Composition–Strain–Activity Relationship journal January 2015
Lattice-strain control of the activity in dealloyed core–shell fuel cell catalysts journal April 2010
Quantitative Analysis of Mixed Oxidation States in Supported Catalysts journal December 1994
Structural Models and Atomic Distribution of Bimetallic Nanoparticles as Investigated by X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy journal August 2005
Enhancing Hydrogen Evolution Activity in Water Splitting by Tailoring Li+-Ni(OH)2-Pt Interfaces journal December 2011
Role of Structural and Electronic Properties of Pt and Pt Alloys on Electrocatalysis of Oxygen Reduction
  • Mukerjee, Sanjeev; Srinivasan, Supramaniam; Soriaga, Manuel P.
  • Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 142, Issue 5, p. 1409-1422 https://doi.org/10.1149/1.2048590
journal January 1995
Alloying effects on x-ray absorption edges in nickel-platinum single crystals journal April 1993
Bonding and Structures of Transition Metals journal July 1968
Metal and Metal Oxide Interactions and Their Catalytic Consequences for Oxygen Reduction Reaction journal June 2017
Asymmetric Volcano Trend in Oxygen Reduction Activity of Pt and Non-Pt Catalysts: In Situ Identification of the Site-Blocking Effect journal January 2017
The role of transition metals in the catalytic activity of Pt alloys: quantification of strain and ligand effects journal January 2014
Predicting the Oxygen-Binding Properties of Platinum Nanoparticle Ensembles by Combining High-Precision Electron Microscopy and Density Functional Theory journal June 2017
Why conclusions from platinum model surfaces do not necessarily lead to enhanced nanoparticle catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction journal January 2017
Rational Design of Pt 3 Ni Surface Structures for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction journal July 2015
VESTA : a three-dimensional visualization system for electronic and structural analysis journal May 2008

Cited By (29)

Transformation of carbon-supported Pt–Ni octahedral electrocatalysts into cubes: toward stable electrocatalysis journal January 2018
Computationally generated maps of surface structures and catalytic activities for alloy phase diagrams journal October 2019
Engineering bunched Pt-Ni alloy nanocages for efficient oxygen reduction in practical fuel cells journal November 2019
Pt‐Based Nanocrystal for Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction journal December 2018
Recent advancements in Pt-nanostructure-based electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction journal January 2019
Vacancy-coordinated hydrogen evolution reaction on MoO 3−x anchored atomically dispersed MoRu pairs journal January 2019
Tungsten as “Adhesive” in Pt 2 CuW 0.25 Ternary Alloy for Highly Durable Oxygen Reduction Electrocatalysis journal December 2019
All-metallic nanorattles consisting of a Pt core and a mesoporous PtPd shell for enhanced electrocatalysis journal September 2019
Nanoscale Structure Design for High-Performance Pt-Based ORR Catalysts journal December 2018
Programmable Exposure of Pt Active Facets for Efficient Oxygen Reduction journal September 2019
Phase Modulating of Cu–Ni Nanowires Enables Active and Stable Electrocatalysts for the Methanol Oxidation Reaction journal April 2019
Effective Oxygen Reduction Reaction Performance of FeCo Alloys In Situ Anchored on Nitrogen-Doped Carbon by the Microwave-Assistant Carbon Bath Method and Subsequent Plasma Etching journal September 2019
Mechanisms for hydrogen evolution on transition metal phosphide catalysts and a comparison to Pt(111) journal January 2019
Shaping well-defined noble-metal-based nanostructures for fabricating high-performance electrocatalysts: advances and perspectives journal January 2019
Morphological, Structural, and Compositional Evolution of Pt–Ni Octahedral Electrocatalysts with Pt‐Rich Edges and Ni‐Rich Core: Toward the Rational Design of Electrocatalysts for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction journal January 2019
Tungsten‐Doped L1 0 ‐PtCo Ultrasmall Nanoparticles as a High‐Performance Fuel Cell Cathode journal September 2019
First-principles database driven computational neural network approach to the discovery of active ternary nanocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction journal January 2018
A Trimetallic Pt2NiCo/C Electrocatalyst with Enhanced Activity and Durability for Oxygen Reduction Reaction journal February 2020
Synthesis and Characterizations of Zinc Oxide on Reduced Graphene Oxide for High Performance Electrocatalytic Reduction of Oxygen journal December 2018
A Hybrid Material Combined Copper Oxide with Graphene for an Oxygen Reduction Reaction in an Alkaline Medium journal January 2019
Current progress of Pt and Pt-based electrocatalysts used for fuel cells journal January 2020
Alloy Nanocatalysts for the Electrochemical Oxygen Reduction (ORR) and the Direct Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Reduction Reaction (CO 2 RR) journal December 2018
Design of Stable Ultrasmall Pt−Ni(O) Nanoparticles with Enhanced Catalytic Performance: Insights into the Effects of Pt−Ni−NiO Dual Interfaces journal July 2018
Tungsten-Doping-Induced Surface Reconstruction of Porous Ternary Pt-Based Alloy Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction journal January 2019
Fe Isolated Single Atoms on S, N Codoped Carbon by Copolymer Pyrolysis Strategy for Highly Efficient Oxygen Reduction Reaction journal May 2018
Programmable Exposure of Pt Active Facets for Efficient Oxygen Reduction journal September 2019
Tungsten‐Doped L1 0 ‐PtCo Ultrasmall Nanoparticles as a High‐Performance Fuel Cell Cathode journal October 2019
Direct fabrication of bimetallic AuPt nanobrick spherical nanoarchitectonics for the oxygen reduction reaction journal January 2019
Effect of Ionic Liquid Modification on the ORR Performance and Degradation Mechanism of Trimetallic PtNiMo/C Catalysts journal August 2019

Figures / Tables (5)