4 research outputs found
An efficient cathode electrocatalyst for anion exchange membrane water electrolyzer
\ua9 2024 The AuthorsA high performance and durable electrocatalyst for the cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in anion exchange membrane (AEM) water electrolyzers is crucial for the emerging hydrogen economy. Herein, we synthesized PtâC core-shell nanoparticles (core: Pt nanoparticles, shell: N-containing carbon) were uniformly coated on hierarchical MoS2/GNF using pyrolysis of h-MoS2/GNF with a Pt-aniline complex. The synthesized PtâC core-shell@h-MoS2/GNF (with 11.3 % Pt loading) showed HER activity with a lower overpotential of 30 mV at 10 mA cmâ2 as compared to the benchmark catalyst 20 % PtâC (41 mV at 10 mA cmâ2) with improved durability over 94 h at 10 mA cmâ2. Furthermore, we investigated the structural stability and hydrogen adsorption energy for Pt13 cluster, C90 molecule, h-MoS2 sheet, Pt13âC90 core-shell, and Pt13âC90 core-shell deposited h-MoS2 sheets using density functional theory (DFT) simulations. We investigated the PtâC core-shell@h-MoS2/GNF catalyst active sites during HER performance using in-situ Raman analysis as well as DFT. We fabricated AEM water electrolyzers with cathode catalysts of PtâC core-shell@h-MoS2/GNF and evaluated device performance with 0.1 and 1.0 M KOH at 20 and 60 \ub0C. Our work provides a new pathway to design core-shell electrocatalysts for use in AEM water electrolyzers to generate hydrogen