Completely green synthesis of colloid Adams' catalyst α-PtO2 nanocrystals and derivative Pt nanocrystals with high activity and stability for oxygen reduction.
We report a first solution strategy for controlled synthesis of Adams' catalyst (i.e., α-PtO(2)) by a facile and totally green approach using H(2)PtCl(6) and water as reactants. The prepared α-PtO(2) nanocrystals (NCs) are ultrasmall in size and have very "clean" surfaces, which can be reduced to Pt NCs easily in ethanol under ambient conditions. Such Adams' catalysts have been applied as electrocatalysts beyond the field of heterogeneous catalysis. Noticeably, the water-only synthesized α-PtO(2) NCs and their derivative Pt NCs all exhibit much higher oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activities and stabilities than that of the state-of-art Pt/C electrocatalysts. This study provides an example on the organics-free synthesis of α-PtO(2) and Pt NCs as promising cathode catalysts for fuel cell applications and, particularly, this simple, straightforward method may open a new way for the synthesis of other "clean" functional nanomaterials.
Division of Nanomaterials & Chemistry, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, Department of Chemistry, National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, PR China.
Min-Rui
MR
Gao
Zhao-Yang
ZY
Lin
Jun
J
Jiang
Chun-Hua
CH
Cui
Ya-Rong
YR
Zheng
Shu-Hong
SH
Yu