Significant Enhancement of Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Activity by Negatively Charged Pt through Light Doping of W
Daiya Kobayashi, Hirokazu Kobayashi, Dongshuang Wu, Shinya Okazoe, Kohei Kusada, Tomokazu Yamamoto, Takaaki Toriyama, Syo Matsumura, Shogo Kawaguchi, Yoshiki Kubota, Susan Meñez Aspera, Hiroshi Nakanishi, S. Arai, Hiroshi Kitagawa
Abstract
We report novel PtW solid-solution nanoparticles (NPs) produced through electrochemical cleaning of core/shell PtW@WO3 NPs. The resulting PtW NPs achieved a record hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance as a class of Pt-based solid-solution alloys. A current density of 10 mA cm–2 was reached with an overpotential of 19.4 mV, which is significantly lower than that of a commercial Pt catalyst (26.3 mV). The PtW NPs also exhibited long-term stability. Theoretical calculations revealed that negatively charged Pt atoms adjacent to a W atom provide favorable hydrogen adsorption energies for the HER, realizing significantly enhanced HER activity.