Ordered clustering of single atomic Te vacancies in atomically thin PtTe<sub>2</sub> promotes hydrogen evolution catalysis.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 33883552.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-22681-4 and PMC identifier 8060321.
- 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
Exposing and stabilizing undercoordinated platinum (Pt) sites and therefore optimizing their adsorption to reactive intermediates offers a desirable strategy to develop highly efficient Pt-based electrocatalysts. However, preparation of atomically controllable Pt-based model catalysts to understand the correlation between electronic structure, adsorption energy, and catalytic properties of atomic Pt sites is still challenging. Herein we report the atomically thin two-dimensional PtTe2 nanosheets with well-dispersed single atomic Te vacancies (Te-SAVs) and atomically well-defined undercoordinated Pt sites as a model electrocatalyst. A controlled thermal treatment drives the migration of the Te-SAVs to form thermodynamically stabilized, ordered Te-SAV clusters, which decreases both the density of states of undercoordinated Pt sites around the Fermi level and the interacting orbital volume of Pt sites. As a result, the binding strength of atomically defined Pt active sites to H intermediates is effectively reduced, which renders PtTe2 nanosheets highly active and stable in hydrogen evolution reaction.