title: Pt monolayer coating on complex network substrate with high catalytic activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction.
abstract: A deposition process has been developed to fabricate a complete-monolayer Pt coating on a large-surface-area three-dimensional (3D) Ni foam substrate using a buffer layer (Ag or Au) strategy. The quartz crystal microbalance, current density analysis, cyclic voltammetry integration, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results show that the monolayer deposition process accomplishes full coverage on the substrate and the deposition can be controlled to a single atomic layer thickness. To our knowledge, this is the first report on a complete-monolayer Pt coating on a 3D bulk substrate with complex fine structures; all prior literature reported on submonolayer or incomplete-monolayer coating. A thin underlayer of Ag or Au is found to be necessary to cover a very reactive Ni substrate to ensure complete-monolayer Pt coverage; otherwise, only an incomplete monolayer is formed. Moreover, the Pt monolayer is found to work as well as a thick Pt film for catalytic reactions. This development may pave a way to fabricating a high-activity Pt catalyst with minimal Pt usage.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, National Ministry of Education, Institute for Advanced Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710062, China.
authors.forename: Man
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, National Ministry of Education, Institute for Advanced Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710062, China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, National Ministry of Education, Institute for Advanced Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710062, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zi
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, National Ministry of Education, Institute for Advanced Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710062, China.
authors.forename: Xiaojing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, National Ministry of Education, Institute for Advanced Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710062, China.
authors.forename: Xuejie
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, National Ministry of Education, Institute for Advanced Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710062, China. ; Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China.
authors.forename: Shengzhong Frank
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: Catalyst; Ni foam; complete monolayer; monolayer; platinum