PdPtNi hollow nanocages for boosting alkaline hydrogen oxidization/evolution reactions
Ke Liu, Mengyuan Jin, Ping Yu, Nan Hou, Yun Yang, Shun Wang, Zhiwei Hu, Juan Wang, Huile Jin
Abstract
The development of cost-effective catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) is the key to realizing alkaline fuel cells and water electrolytic cells applications. Early reports have shown that surface modification of Pt based catalysts with highly oxygenophilic metals can significantly enhance its HOR/HER activity. Here, we have successfully synthesized uniform trimetallic PdPtNi hollow nanocages (PdPtNi HNCs) with excellent HER and HOR activity under alkaline media via hydrothermal deposition of oxygenophilic Ni on PdPt HNCs. Moreover, the PdPtNi HNCs exhibit superior HER/HOR durability and excellent CO-tolerance in HOR, compared with commercial Pt/C catalyst. The theoretical calculations confirm that the introduced Ni enriched the electronic and balance the interactions of the adsorbed intermediates (OH<sub>ad</sub>/H<sub>ad</sub>) on the catalyst’s surface, thus promoting the HER and HOR activity. This work provides a promising approach for designing and synthesizing bifunctional and highly efficient catalysts.