Polyvinylpyrrolidone‐Coordinated Single‐Site Platinum Catalyst Exhibits High Activity for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction
Can Li, Zheng Chen, Hong Yi, Yi Cao, Lei Du, Yidong Hu, Fanpeng Kong, R. Kramer Campen, Yunzhi Gao, Chunyu Du, Geping Yin, Igor Ying Zhang, Yujin Tong
Abstract
The essence of developing a Pt-based single-atom catalyst (SAC) for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is the preparation of well-defined and stable single Pt sites with desired electrocatalytic efficacy. Herein, we report a facile approach to generate uniformly dispersed Pt sites with outstanding HER performance via a photochemical reduction method using polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) molecules as the key additive to significantly simplify the synthesis and enhance the catalytic performance. The as-prepared catalyst displays remarkable kinetic activities (20 times higher current density than the commercially available Pt/C) with excellent stability (76.3 % of its initial activity after 5000 cycles) for HER. EXAFS measurements and DFT calculations demonstrate a synergetic effect, where the PVP ligands and the support together modulate the electronic structure of the Pt atoms, which optimize the hydrogen adsorption energy, resulting in a considerably improved HER activity.