title: Porous Carbon-Supported Gold Nanoparticles for Oxygen Reduction Reaction: Effects of Nanoparticle Size.
abstract: Porous carbon-supported gold nanoparticles of varied sizes were prepared using thiolate-capped molecular Au25, Au38, and Au144 nanoclusters as precursors. The organic capping ligands were removed by pyrolysis at controlled temperatures, resulting in good dispersion of gold nanoparticles within the porous carbons, although the nanoparticle sizes were somewhat larger than those of the respective nanocluster precursors. The resulting nanocomposites displayed apparent activity in the electroreduction of oxygen in alkaline solutions, which increased with decreasing nanoparticle dimensions. Among the series of samples tested, the nanocomposite prepared with Au25 nanoclusters displayed the best activity, as manifested by the positive onset potential at +0.95 V vs RHE, remarkable sustainable stability, and high numbers of electron transfer at (3.60-3.92) at potentials from +0.50 to +0.80 V. The performance is comparable to that of commercial 20 wt % Pt/C. The results demonstrated the unique feasibility of porous carbon-supported gold nanoparticles as high-efficiency ORR catalysts.
authors.affiliation: New Energy Research Institute, School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Centre , Guangzhou, 510006, China.
authors.forename: Likai
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: New Energy Research Institute, School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Centre , Guangzhou, 510006, China.|Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment and Pollution Control, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Centre , Guangzhou, 510006, China.
authors.forename: Zhenghua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: New Energy Research Institute, School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Centre , Guangzhou, 510006, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: New Energy Research Institute, School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Centre , Guangzhou, 510006, China.
authors.forename: Hongyu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: New Energy Research Institute, School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Centre , Guangzhou, 510006, China.
authors.forename: Qiannan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: New Energy Research Institute, School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Centre , Guangzhou, 510006, China.|Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California , 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, California 95064, United States.
authors.forename: Shaowei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
keywords: gold nanoparticle; oxygen reduction; porous carbon; pyrolysis; size effect