title: Platinum single-atom and cluster catalysis of the hydrogen evolution reaction.
abstract: Platinum-based catalysts have been considered the most effective electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction in water splitting. However, platinum utilization in these electrocatalysts is extremely low, as the active sites are only located on the surface of the catalyst particles. Downsizing catalyst nanoparticles to single atoms is highly desirable to maximize their efficiency by utilizing nearly all platinum atoms. Here we report on a practical synthesis method to produce isolated single platinum atoms and clusters using the atomic layer deposition technique. The single platinum atom catalysts are investigated for the hydrogen evolution reaction, where they exhibit significantly enhanced catalytic activity (up to 37 times) and high stability in comparison with the state-of-the-art commercial platinum/carbon catalysts. The X-ray absorption fine structure and density functional theory analyses indicate that the partially unoccupied density of states of the platinum atoms' 5d orbitals on the nitrogen-doped graphene are responsible for the excellent performance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B9.
authors.forename: Niancai
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4L8.
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stambula
authors.affiliation: Beijing Computational Science Research Center, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: Da
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B9.
authors.forename: Mohammad Norouzi
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Banis
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B9.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B9.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Riese
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B9.
authors.forename: Biwei
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B9.
authors.forename: Ruying
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B7.
authors.forename: Tsun-Kong
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Sham
authors.affiliation: Beijing Computational Science Research Center, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: Li-Min
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4L8.|Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L9S 4M1.|Canadian Centre for Electron Microscopy, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4M1.
authors.forename: Gianluigi A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Botton
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B9.
authors.forename: Xueliang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sun