Composition-Tuned Pt-Skinned PtNi Bimetallic Clusters as Highly Efficient Methanol Dehydrogenation Catalysts

No Thumbnail Available

Access rights

openAccess
acceptedVersion

URL

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2019

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

Series

Chemistry of Materials, Volume 31, pp. 10040-10048

Abstract

Platinum is the most active anode and cathode catalyst in next-generation fuel cells using methanol as liquid source of hydrogen. Its catalytic activity can be significantly improved by alloying with 3d metals, although a precise tuning of its surface architecture is still required. Herein, we report the design of a highly active low-temperature (below 0 °C) methanol dehydrogenation anode catalyst with reduced CO poisoning based on ultralow amount of precisely defined PtxNi1-x (x = 0 to 1) bimetallic clusters (BCs) deposited on inert flat oxides by cluster beam deposition. These BCs feature clear composition-dependent atomic arrangements and electronic structures stemming from their nucleation mechanism, which are responsible for a volcano-type activity trend peaking at the Pt0.7Ni0.3 composition. Our calculations reveal that at this composition, a cluster skin of Pt atoms with d-band centers downshifted by subsurface Ni atoms weakens the CO interaction that in turn triggers a significant increase in the methanol dehydrogenation activity.

Description

| openaire: EC/H2020/686053/EU//CritCat

Keywords

Other note

Citation

Liao, T W, Yadav, A, Ferrari, P, Niu, Y, Wei, X K, Vernieres, J, Hu, K J, Heggen, M, Dunin-Borkowski, R E, Palmer, R E, Laasonen, K, Grandjean, D, Janssens, E & Lievens, P 2019, ' Composition-Tuned Pt-Skinned PtNi Bimetallic Clusters as Highly Efficient Methanol Dehydrogenation Catalysts ', Chemistry of Materials, vol. 31, pp. 10040-10048 . https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.9b02824