Mesoporous amorphous non-noble metals as versatile substrates for high loading and uniform dispersion of Pt-group single atoms
Yunqing Kang, Shuangjun Li, Ovidiu Cretu, Koji Kimoto, Yingji Zhao, Liyang Zhu, Xiaoqian Wei, Lei Fu, Dong Jiang, Chao Wan, Bo Jiang, Toru Asahi, Dieqing Zhang, Hexing Li, Yusuke Yamauchi
Abstract
Atomically dispersed Pt-group metals are promising as nanocatalysts because of their unique geometric structures and ultrahigh atomic utilization. However, loading isolated Pt-group metals in single-atom alloys (SAAs) with distinctive bimetallic sites is challenging. In this study, we present amorphous mesoporous Ni boride (Ni-B) as an ideal substrate to uniformly disperse Pt atoms with tunable loadings (1.7 to 12.2 wt %). The effect of the morphology, composition, and crystal phase of the Ni-B host on the growth and dispersion of Pt atoms is discussed. The resulting amorphous Pt-Ni-B mesoporous nanospheres exhibit superior electrocatalytic H 2 evolution performance in acidic media. This strategy holds the potential to synthesize a diverse library of mesoporous amorphous Pt-group SAAs, by leveraging functional amorphous nanostructured 3 d transition-metal borides as substrates, thereby proposing a comprehensive strategy to control atomically dispersed Pt-group metals.