Electrochemical deposition as a universal route for fabricating single-atom catalysts.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32139683.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-14917-6 and PMC identifier 7058015.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Single-atom catalysts (SACs) exhibit intriguing catalytic performance owing to their maximized atom utilizations and unique electronic structures. However, the reported strategies for synthesizing SACs generally have special requirements for either the anchored metals or the supports. Herein, we report a universal approach of electrochemical deposition that is applicable to a wide range of metals and supports for the fabrication of SACs. The depositions were conducted on both cathode and anode, where the different redox reactions endowed the SACs with distinct electronic states. The SACs from cathodic deposition exhibited high activities towards hydrogen evolution reaction, while those from anodic deposition were highly active towards oxygen evolution reaction. When cathodically- and anodically-deposited Ir single atoms on Co<sub>0.8</sub>Fe<sub>0.2</sub>Se<sub>2</sub>@Ni foam were integrated into a two-electrode cell for overall water splitting, a voltage of 1.39 V was required at 10 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> in alkaline electrolyte.