Morphology‐Tuned Pt<sub>3</sub>Ge Accelerates Water Dissociation to Industrial‐Standard Hydrogen Production over a wide pH Range
Soumi Mondal, Shreya Sarkar, Debabrata Bagchi, Tisita Das, Risov Das, Ashutosh Kumar Singh, Ponnappa Kechanda Prasanna, C. P. Vinod, Sudip Chakraborty, Sebastian C. Peter
Abstract
Abstract The discovery of novel materials for industrial‐standard hydrogen production is the present need considering the global energy infrastructure. A novel electrocatalyst, Pt 3 Ge, which is engineered with a desired crystallographic facet (202), accelerates hydrogen production by water electrolysis, and records industrially desired operational stability compared to the commercial catalyst platinum is introduced. Pt 3 Ge‐(202) exhibits low overpotential of 21.7 mV (24.6 mV for Pt/C) and 92 mV for 10 and 200 mA cm −2 current density, respectively in 0.5 m H 2 SO 4 . It also exhibits remarkable stability of 15 000 accelerated degradation tests cycles (5000 for Pt/C) and exceptional durability of 500 h (@10 mA cm −2 ) in acidic media. Pt 3 Ge‐(202) also displays low overpotential of 96 mV for 10 mA cm −2 current density in the alkaline medium, rationalizing its hydrogen production ability over a wide pH range required commercial operations. Long‐term durability (>75 h in alkaline media) with the industrial level current density (>500 mA cm −2 ) has been demonstrated by utilizing the electrochemical flow reactor. The driving force behind this stupendous performance of Pt 3 Ge‐(202) has been envisaged by mapping the reaction mechanism, active sites, and charge‐transfer kinetics via controlled electrochemical experiments, ex situ X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, in situ infrared spectroscopy, and in situ X‐ray absorption spectroscopy further corroborated by first principles calculations.