Platinum catalysis for energy storage batteries

Nature Catalysis 2, 477–478 (2019) Cite this article Tailoring platinum-based catalysts is of great research interest in the fields of electrochemical energy conversion and storage, as well as other applications. Now, an approach has been developed to boost the activity of platinum catalysts at the atomic scale.

When pursuing efficient and stable platinum-based catalysts for diverse electrocatalytic reactions, one of the main challenges is achieving high activity with a minimum amount of the expensive and scarce platinum — that is, achieving high platinum mass activity 2.

This uses platinum catalysts to spur a reaction that splits the water molecule, which is called electrolysis. However, although platinum is an excellent catalyst for this reaction, it is expensive and rare, so minimising its use is important to reduce system cost and limit platinum extraction.

Both are considered effective approaches to improve the performance of platinum-based catalysts. For example, nickel hydroxide has been decorated on the surface of platinum to facilitate the dissociation of adsorbed H 2 O and H 2, leading to significantly enhanced intrinsic activities towards hydrogen oxidation and evolution reactions 4, 5, 6.

Professor Kucernak and colleagues have set up several companies based on these technologies, including RFC Power that specialises in hydrogen flow batteries, which could be improved by using the new single-atom platinum catalysts.

Now, writing in Nature Catalysis, Xiangfeng Duan, Yu Huang, Philippe Sautet and colleagues report the development of an atomic tailoring approach to boost the electrocatalytic activity of platinum catalysts with minimum loss of active sites 3.