Abstract
Currently, the widespread integration of fuel cells into the energy market is limited by the large amounts of precious metal catalysts necessary for effective oxygen reduction (ORR) and sufficient energy output. To meet this challenge, many methods have been successfully adopted to improve the activity of fuel cell electrocatalysts and to provide a basis for controlled manipulation of particle properties, specifically, the interaction between the catalyst surface and ORR intermediates. Of these, interfacial engineering of the nanoparticle surface has proven an effective and facile method for enhancing catalytic activity and is the focus of this chapter. What follows is a review of electrocatalytic enhancement from the prospective of surface modifications for nanoparticle alloys, organically capped nanoparticles, and metal oxide nanoparticles. For alloy nanoparticles, the mixing of the metals will modify the d band structure of the surface atoms and result in different binding affinities for oxygenated intermediates. Organic functionalization will alter the kinetics of catalysis by imparting electronic effects on the surface atoms based on the nature of the ligand and nature of the interfacial bond. Surface oxygen vacancies and other stoichiometry modifications of metal oxide particles have also been shown to alter surface properties and thus alter the dynamics of oxygen electroreduction. In each case, we closely examine the connection between particle characteristics and activity as well present experimental methods used to control these properties and the prevailing theories detailing the basis for electrocatalytic enhancement.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Wagner FT, Lakshmanan B, Mathias MF (2010) Elecrochemistry and the future of the automobile. J Phys Chem Lett 1:2204–2219. doi:10.1021/jz100553m|J
Cano-Castillo U (2013) Hydrogen and fuel cells: potential elements in the energy transition scenario. Rev Mex Fis 59(2):85–92
Stephens IEL, Bondarenko AS, Grønbjerg U, Rossmeisl J, Chorkendorff I (2012) Understanding the electrocatalysis of oxygen reduction on platinum and its alloys. Energy Environ Sci 5(5):6744. doi:10.1039/c2ee03590a
Norskov JK, Rossmeisl J, Logadottir A, Lindqvist L, Kitchin JR, Bligaard T, Jonsson H (2004) Origin of the overpotential for oxygen reduction at a fuel-cell cathode. J Phys Chem B 108:17886–17892
Song C, Zhang J (2008) PEM fuel cell electrocatalysis and catalyst layers: fundamentals and applications. Electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction. Springer, New York
Rabis A, Rodriguez P, Schmidt TJ (2012) Electrocatalysis for polymer electrolyte fuel cells: recent achievements and future challenges. ACS Catal 2(5):864–890. doi:10.1021/cs3000864
Lim D-H, Wilcox J (2012) Mechanisms of the oxygen reduction reaction on defective graphene-supported Pt nanoparticles from first-principles. J Phys Chem C 116(5):3653–3660. doi:10.1021/jp210796e
Sabatier P (1911) Announcement. Hydrogenation and dehydrogenation for catalysis. Ber Dtsch Chem Ges 44:1984–2001. doi:10.1002/cber.19110440303
Kinoshita K (1990) Particle-size effects for oxygen reduction on highly dispersed platinum in acid electrolytes. J Electrochem Soc 137(3):845–848
Yano H, Inukai J, Uchida H, Watanabe M, Babu PK, Kobayashi T, Chung JH, Oldfield E, Wieckowski A (2006) Particle-size effect of nanoscale platinum catalysts in oxygen reduction reaction: an electrochemical and Pt-195 EC-NMR study. Phys Chem Chem Phys 8(42):4932–4939. doi:10.1039/B610573d
Lim B, Jiang MJ, Camargo PHC, Cho EC, Tao J, Lu XM, Zhu YM, Xia YN (2009) Pd-Pt bimetallic nanodendrites with high activity for oxygen reduction. Science 324(5932):1302–1305. doi:10.1126/science.1170377
Chen ZW, Waje M, Li WZ, Yan YS (2007) Supportless Pt and PtPd nanotubes as electrocatalysts for oxygen-reduction reactions. Angew Chem Int Ed 46(22):4060–4063. doi:10.1002/Anie.200700894
Xiao L, Zhuang L, Liu Y, Lu JT, Abruna HD (2009) Activating Pd by morphology tailoring for oxygen reduction. J Am Chem Soc 131(2):602–608
Savadogo O, Lee K, Oishi K, Mitsushima S, Kamiya N, Ota KI (2004) New palladium alloys catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction in an acid medium. Electrochem Commun 6(2):105–109. doi:10.1016/J.Elecom.2003.10.020
Shao MH, Sasaki K, Adzic RR (2006) Pd-Fe nanoparticles as electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction. J Am Chem Soc 128(11):3526–3527. doi:10.1021/Ja060167d
Zhang JL, Vukmirovic MB, Sasaki K, Nilekar AU, Mavrikakis M, Adzic RR (2005) Mixed-metal Pt monolayer electrocatalysts for enhanced oxygen reduction kinetics. J Am Chem Soc 127(36):12480–12481
Zhang JL, Vukmirovic MB, Xu Y, Mavrikakis M, Adzic RR (2005) Controlling the catalytic activity of platinum-monolayer electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction with different substrates. Angew Chem Int Ed 44(14):2132–2135
Greeley J, Stephens IEL, Bondarenko AS, Johansson TP, Hansen HA, Jaramillo TF, Rossmeisl J, Chorkendorff I, Norskov JK (2009) Alloys of platinum and early transition metals as oxygen reduction electrocatalysts. Nat Chem 1(7):552–556. doi:10.1038/Nchem.367
Bing YH, Liu HS, Zhang L, Ghosh D, Zhang JJ (2010) Nanostructured Pt-alloy electrocatalysts for PEM fuel cell oxygen reduction reaction. Chem Soc Rev 39(6):2184–2202. doi:10.1039/B912552c
Zhou Z-Y, Kang X, Song Y, Chen S (2012) Ligand-mediated electrocatalytic activity of pt nanoparticles for oxygen reduction reactions. J Phys Chem C 116(19):10592–10598. doi:10.1021/jp300199x
He G, Song Y, Phebus B, Liu K, Deming CP, Hu P, Chen S (2013) Electrocatalytic activity of organically functionalized silver nanoparticles in oxygen reduction. Sci Adv Mater 5(11):1727–1736. doi:10.1166/sam.2013.1624
Cheng FY, Zhang TR, Zhang Y, Du J, Han XP, Chen J (2013) Enhancing electrocatalytic oxygen reduction on MnO2 with vacancies. Angew Chem Int Ed 52(9):2474–2477. doi:10.1002/anie.201208582
Strasser P, Koh S, Anniyev T, Greeley J, More K, Yu CF, Liu ZC, Kaya S, Nordlund D, Ogasawara H, Toney MF, Nilsson A (2010) Lattice-strain control of the activity in dealloyed core-shell fuel cell catalysts. Nat Chem 2(6):454–460. doi:10.1038/Nchem.623
Kitchin JR, Norskov JK, Barteau MA, Chen JG (2004) Modification of the surface electronic and chemical properties of Pt(111) by subsurface 3d transition metals. J Chem Phys 120(21):10240–10246. doi:10.1063/1.1737365
Stephens IE, Bondarenko AS, Perez-Alonso FJ, Calle-Vallejo F, Bech L, Johansson TP, Jepsen AK, Frydendal R, Knudsen BP, Rossmeisl J, Chorkendorff I (2011) Tuning the activity of Pt(111) for oxygen electroreduction by subsurface alloying. J Am Chem Soc 133(14):5485–5491. doi:10.1021/ja111690g
Stamenkovic VR, Mun BS, Arenz M, Mayrhofer KJJ, Lucas CA, Wang GF, Ross PN, Markovic NM (2007) Trends in electrocatalysis on extended and nanoscale Pt-bimetallic alloy surfaces. Nat Mater 6(3):241–247
Stamenkovic VR, Fowler B, Mun BS, Wang GF, Ross PN, Lucas CA, Markovic NM (2007) Improved oxygen reduction activity on Pt3Ni(111) via increased surface site availability. Science 315(5811):493–497
Zhou ZY, Kang XW, Song Y, Chen SW (2012) Enhancement of the electrocatalytic activity of Pt nanoparticles in oxygen reduction by chlorophenyl functionalization. Chem Commun 48(28):3391–3393. doi:10.1039/C2cc17945h
Liu K, Kang XW, Zhou ZY, Song Y, Lee LJ, Tian D, Chen SW (2013) Platinum nanoparticles functionalized with acetylene derivatives: Electronic conductivity and electrocatalytic activity in oxygen reduction. J Electroanal Chem 688:143–150
He GQ, Song Y, Liu K, Walter A, Chen S, Chen SW (2013) Oxygen reduction catalyzed by platinum nanoparticles supported on graphene quantum dots. ACS Catal 3(5):831–838. doi:10.1021/Cs400114s
Song Y, Chen SW (2014) Graphene quantum-dot-supported platinum nanoparticles: defect-mediated electrocatalytic activity in oxygen reduction. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 6(16):14050–14060. doi:10.1021/Am503388z
Chen W, Chen SW, Ding FZ, Wang HB, Brown LE, Konopelski JP (2008) Nanoparticle-mediated intervalence transfer. J Am Chem Soc 130(36):12156–12162. doi:10.1021/Ja803887b
Chen W, Zuckerman NB, Kang XW, Ghosh D, Konopelski JP, Chen SW (2010) Alkyne-protected ruthenium nanoparticles. J Phys Chem C 114(42):18146–18152
Kang XW, Chen W, Zuckerman NB, Konopelski JP, Chen SW (2011) Intraparticle charge delocalization of carbene-functionalized ruthenium nanoparticles manipulated by selective ion binding. Langmuir 27(20):12636–12641
Zhou ZY, Ren J, Kang X, Song Y, Sun SG, Chen S (2012) Butylphenyl-functionalized Pt nanoparticles as CO-resistant electrocatalysts for formic acid oxidation. Phys Chem Chem Phys 14(4):1412–1417. doi:10.1039/c1cp23183a
Wang N, Niu W, Li L, Liu J, Tang Z, Zhou W, Chen S (2015) Oxygen electroreduction promoted by quasi oxygen vacancies in metal oxide nanoparticles prepared by photoinduced chlorine doping. Chem Commun 51:10620–10623. doi:10.1039/C5CC02808F
Cheng F, Su Y, Liang J, Tao Z, Chen J (2010) MnO2-based nanostructures as catalysts for electrochemical oxygen reduction in alkaline media. Chem Mater 22(3):898–905. doi:10.1021/cm901698s
Cheng FY, Chen J (2012) Metal-air batteries: from oxygen reduction electrochemistry to cathode catalysts. Chem Soc Rev 41(6):2172–2192. doi:10.1039/c1cs15228a
Goodenough JB, Cushing BL (2003) Handbook of fuel cells-fundamentals, technology and applications, vol 2. Wiley, New York
Suntivich J, Gasteiger HA, Yabuuchi N, Nakanishi H, Goodenough JB, Shao-Horn Y (2011) Design principles for oxygen-reduction activity on perovskite oxide catalysts for fuel cells and metal-air batteries. Nat Chem 3(7):546–550
Xiong L, Kannan AM, Manthiram A (2002) Pt-M (M = Fe, Co, Ni and Cu) electrocatalysts synthesized by an aqueous route for proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Electrochem Commun 4(11):898-903. Pii: S1388-2481(02)00485x
Wu JB, Zhang JL, Peng ZM, Yang SC, Wagner FT, Yang H (2010) Truncated octahedral Pt3Ni oxygen reduction reaction electrocatalysts. J Am Chem Soc 132(14):4984–4985. doi:10.1021/ja100571h
Mavrikakis M, Hammer B, Norskov JK (1998) Effect of strain on the reactivity of metal surfaces. Phys Rev Lett 81(13):2819–2822
Rodriguez JA, Goodman DW (1992) The nature of the metal bond in bimetallic surfaces. Science 257(5072):897–903. doi:10.1126/Science.257.5072.897
Chen MS, Kumar D, Yi CW, Goodman DW (2005) The promotional effect of gold in catalysis by palladium-gold. Science 310(5746):291–293. doi:10.1126/Science.1115800
Stamenkovic V, Mun BS, Mayrhofer KJJ, Ross PN, Markovic NM, Rossmeisl J, Greeley J, Norskov JK (2006) Changing the activity of electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction by tuning the surface electronic structure. Angew Chem Int Ed 45(18):2897–2901
Xiao L, Huang B, Zhuang L, Lu JT (2011) Optimization strategy for fuel-cell catalysts based on electronic effects. Rsc Adv 1(7):1358–1363. doi:10.1039/C1ra00378j
Greeley J, Norskov JK (2009) Combinatorial density functional theory-based screening of surface alloys for the oxygen reduction reaction. J Phys Chem C 113(12):4932–4939. doi:10.1021/Jp808945y
Fernandez JL, Raghuveer V, Manthiram A, Bard AJ (2005) Pd-Ti and Pd-Co-Au electrocatalysts as a replacement for platinum for oxygen reduction in proton exchange membrane fuel cells. J Am Chem Soc 127(38):13100–13101. doi:10.1021/Ja0534710
Suo YG, Zhuang L, Lu JT (2007) First-principles considerations in the design of Pd-alloy catalysts for oxygen reduction. Angew Chem Int Ed 46(16):2862–2864. doi:10.1002/Anie.200604332
Sleightholme AES, Varcoe JR, Kucernak AR (2008) Oxygen reduction at the silver/hydroxide-exchange membrane interface. Electrochem Commun 10(1):151–155. doi:10.1016/J.Elecom.2007.11.008
Guo JS, Hsu A, Chu D, Chen RR (2010) Improving oxygen reduction reaction activities on carbon-supported Ag nanoparticles in alkaline solutions. J Phys Chem C 114(10):4324–4330. doi:10.1021/Jp910790u
Chatenet M, Genies-Bultel L, Aurousseau M, Durand R, Andolfatto F (2002) Oxygen reduction on silver catalysts in solutions containing various concentrations of sodium hydroxide—comparison with platinum. J Appl Electrochem 32(10):1131–1140. doi:10.1023/A:1021231503922
Varcoe JR, Slade RCT (2005) Prospects for alkaline anion-exchange membranes in low temperature fuel cells. Fuel Cells 5(2):187–200. doi:10.1002/Fuce.200400045
Slanac DA, Hardin WG, Johnston KP, Stevenson KJ (2012) Atomic ensemble and electronic effects in Ag-rich AgPd nanoalloy catalysts for oxygen reduction in alkaline media. J Am Chem Soc 134(23):9812–9819. doi:10.1021/Ja303580b
Chen S, Templeton AC, Murray RW (2000) Monolayer-protected cluster growth dynamics. Langmuir 16:3543–3548
Templeton AC, Wuelfing MP, Murray RW (2000) Monolayer protected cluster molecules. Acc Chem Res 33(1):27–36
Cavaliere S, Fdr R, Etcheberry A, Herlem M, Perez H (2004) Direct electrocatalytic activity of capped platinum nanoparticles toward oxygen reduction. Electrochem Solid-State Lett 7(10):A358. doi:10.1149/1.1792259
Baret B, Aubert PH, L’Hermite MM, Pinault M, Reynaud C, Etcheberry A, Perez H (2009) Nanocomposite electrodes based on pre-synthesized organically capped platinum nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes. Part I: Tuneable low platinum loadings, specific H upd feature and evidence for oxygen reduction. Electrochim Acta 54(23):5421–5430. doi:10.1016/j.electacta.2009.04.033
Genorio B, Strmcnik D, Subbaraman R, Tripkovic D, Karapetrov G, Stamenkovic V, Pejovnik S, Markovic N (2010) Selective catalysts for the hydrogen oxidation and oxygen reduction reactions by patterning of platinum with calix[4]arene molecules. Nat Mater 9:998–1003. doi:10.1038/nmat2883
Strmcnik D, Escudero-Escribano M, Kodama K, Stamenkovic V, Cuesta A, Markovic N (2010) Enhanced electrocatalysis of the oxygen reduction reaction based on patterning of platinum surfaces with cyanide. Nat Chem 2:880–885. doi:10.1038/nchem.771
Pietron JJ, Garsany Y, Baturina O, Swider-Lyons KE, Stroud RM, Ramaker DE, Schull TL (2008) Electrochemical observation of ligand effects on oxygen reduction at ligand-stabilized Pt nanoparticle electrocatalysts. Electrochem Solid-State Lett 11(8):B161. doi:10.1149/1.2937448
Kostelansky CN, Pietron JJ, Chen MS, Dressick WJ, Swider-Lyons KE, Ramaker DE, Stroud RM, Klug CA, Zelakiewicz BS, Schull TL (2006) Triarylphosphine-stabilized platinum nanoparticles in three-dimensional nanostructured films as active electrocatalysts. J Phys Chem B 110(43):21487–21496. doi:10.1021/Jp062663u
Song Y, Liu K, Chen SW (2012) AgAu bimetallic janus nanoparticles and their electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction in alkaline media. Langmuir 28(49):17143–17152. doi:10.1021/La303513x
Lima FHB, Zhang J, Shao MH, Sasaki K, Vukmirovic MB, Ticianelli EA, Adzic RR (2007) Catalytic activity-d-band center correlation for the O2 reduction reaction on platinum in alkaline solutions. J Phys Chem C 111:404–410
Hull RV, Li L, Xing YC, Chusuei CC (2006) Pt nanoparticle binding on functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Chem Mater 18(7):1780–1788. doi:10.1021/Cm0518978
Palaniselvam T, Irshad A, Unni B, Kurungot S (2012) Activity modulated low platinum content oxygen reduction electrocatalysts prepared by inducing nano-order dislocations on carbon nanofiber through N-2-doping. J Phys Chem C 116(28):14754–14763. doi:10.1021/Jp300881p
Timperman L, Feng YJ, Vogel W, Alonso-Vante N (2010) Substrate effect on oxygen reduction electrocatalysis. Electrochim Acta 55(26):7558–7563. doi:10.1016/j.electacta.2009.09.076
Vogel W, Timperman L, Alonso-Vante N (2010) Probing metal substrate interaction of Pt nanoparticles: structural XRD analysis and oxygen reduction reaction. Appl Catal Gen 377(1–2):167–173. doi:10.1016/j.apcata.2010.01.034
Liu X, Yao KX, Meng CG, Han Y (2012) Graphene substrate-mediated catalytic performance enhancement of Ru nanoparticles: a first-principles study. Dalton Trans 41(4):1289–1296. doi:10.1039/C1dt11186h
Ferrari AC, Basko DM (2013) Raman spectroscopy as a versatile tool for studying the properties of graphene. Nat Nanotechnol 8(4):235–246
Dresselhaus MS, Terrones M (2013) Carbon-based nanomaterials from a historical perspective. Proc IEEE 101(7):1522–1535
Kim J, Yin X, Tsao KC, Fang S, Yang H (2014) Ca(2)Mn(2)O(5) as oxygen-deficient perovskite electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction. J Am Chem Soc 136(42):14646–14649. doi:10.1021/ja506254g
Acknowledgment
The authors thank the National Science Foundation for partial support of the work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Deming, C.P., Hu, P., Liu, K., Chen, S. (2016). Enhanced Electrocatalytic Activity of Nanoparticle Catalysts in Oxygen Reduction by Interfacial Engineering. In: Ozoemena, K., Chen, S. (eds) Nanomaterials for Fuel Cell Catalysis. Nanostructure Science and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29930-3_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29930-3_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-26249-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-29930-3
eBook Packages: Chemistry and Materials ScienceChemistry and Material Science (R0)