title: Ternary Platinum-Copper-Nickel Nanoparticles Anchored to Hierarchical Carbon Supports as Free-Standing Hydrogen Evolution Electrodes.
abstract: Developing cost-effective and efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts for hydrogen production is of paramount importance to attain a sustainable energy future. Reported herein is a novel three-dimensional hierarchical architectured electrocatalyst, consisting of platinum-copper-nickel nanoparticles-decorated carbon nanofiber arrays, which are conformally assembled on carbon felt fabrics (PtCuNi/CNF@CF) by an ambient-pressure chemical vapor deposition coupled with a spontaneous galvanic replacement reaction. The free-standing PtCuNi/CNF@CF monolith exhibits high porosities, a well-defined geometry shape, outstanding electron conductivity, and a unique characteristic of localizing platinum-copper-nickel nanoparticles in the tips of carbon nanofibers. Such features render PtCuNi/CNF@CF as an ideal binder-free HER electrode for hydrogen production. Electrochemical measurements demonstrate that the PtCuNi/CNF@CF possesses superior intrinsic activity as well as mass-specific activity in comparison with the state-of-the-art Pt/C catalysts, both in acidic and alkaline solutions. With well-tuned composition of active nanoparticles, Pt42Cu57Ni1/CNF@CF showed excellent durability. The synthesis strategy reported in this work is likely to pave a new route for fabricating free-standing hierarchical electrodes for electrochemical devices.
authors.affiliation: School of Food Science and Technology, South China University of Technology , Guangzhou, 510640, China.|School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University , 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798, Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University , 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798, Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: Aik Chong
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Lua
authors.affiliation: Institute of Green Chemistry and Energy, Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University , Shenzhen 518055, China.
authors.forename: Jingyu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Green Chemistry and Energy, Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University , Shenzhen 518055, China.|Key Lab of Organic Optoelectronics and Molecular Engineering, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Xinping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qiu
keywords: carbon nanofiber arrays; chemical vapor deposition; free-standing electrocatalysts; hydrogen evolution reaction; ternary platinum−copper−nickel nanoparticles