p–d Orbital Hybridization Induced by a Monodispersed Ga Site on a Pt<sub>3</sub>Mn Nanocatalyst Boosts Ethanol Electrooxidation
Yao Wang, Meng Zheng, Yunrui Li, Chenliang Ye, Juan Chen, Jinyu Ye, Qinghua Zhang, Jiong Li, Zhiyou Zhou, Xian‐Zhu Fu, Jin Wang, Shi‐Gang Sun, Dingsheng Wang
Abstract
Abstract Constructing monodispersed metal sites in heterocatalysis is an efficient strategy to boost their catalytic performance. Herein, a new strategy using monodispersed metal sites to tailor Pt‐based nanocatalysts is addressed by engineering unconventional p–d orbital hybridization. Thus, monodispersed Ga on Pt 3 Mn nanocrystals (Ga‐O‐Pt 3 Mn) with high‐indexed facets was constructed for the first time to drive ethanol electrooxidation reaction (EOR). Strikingly, the Ga‐O‐Pt 3 Mn nanocatalyst shows an enhanced EOR performance with achieving 8.41 times of specific activity than that of Pt/C. The electrochemical in situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy results and theoretical calculations disclose that the Ga‐O‐Pt 3 Mn nanocatalyst featuring an unconventional p–d orbital hybridization not only promote the C−C bond‐breaking and rapid oxidation of ‐OH of ethanol, but also inhibit the generation of poisonous CO intermediate species. This work discloses a promising strategy to construct a novel nanocatalysts tailored by monodispersed metal site as efficient fuel cell catalysts.