Tuning the Electronic Structure of Titanium Oxide Support to Enhance the Electrochemical Activity of Platinum Nanoparticles

Shi, Feifei; Baker, L. Robert; Hervier, Antoine; Somorjai, Gabor A.; Komvopoulos, Kyriakos

Tuning the Electronic Structure of Titanium Oxide Support to Enhance the Electrochemical Activity of Platinum Nanoparticles

Type

Article

Authors

Shi, Feifei
Baker, L. Robert
Hervier, Antoine
Somorjai, Gabor A.
Komvopoulos, Kyriakos

Online Publication Date

2013-08-13

Print Publication Date

2013-09-11

Date

2013-08-13

Abstract

Two times higher activity and three times higher stability in methanol oxidation reaction, a 0.12 V negative shift of the CO oxidation peak potential, and a 0.07 V positive shift of the oxygen reaction potential compared to Pt nanoparticles on pristine TiO2 support were achieved by tuning the electronic structure of the titanium oxide support of Pt nanoparticle catalysts. This was accomplished by adding oxygen vacancies or doping with fluorine. Experimental trends are interpreted in the context of an electronic structure model, showing an improvement in electrochemical activity when the Fermi level of the support material in Pt/TiOx systems is close to the Pt Fermi level and the redox potential of the reaction. The present approach provides guidance for the selection of the support material of Pt/TiOx systems and may be applied to other metal-oxide support materials, thus having direct implications in the design and optimization of fuel cell catalyst supports. © 2013 American Chemical Society.

Citation

Shi F, Baker LR, Hervier A, Somorjai GA, Komvopoulos K (2013) Tuning the Electronic Structure of Titanium Oxide Support to Enhance the Electrochemical Activity of Platinum Nanoparticles. Nano Lett 13: 4469–4474. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nl402392u.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Philip N. Ross, Jr., for helpful discussions on elertocatalysis, Zhongwei Zhu for assistance in XPS spectra acquisition, and Yimin Li and Hailiang Wang for fruitful discussions. TiOx film deposition was carried out at the Marvell Nano Lab, University of California, Berkeley (UCB). SEM and XPS studies were carried out at the Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This research was supported by the UCB-KAUST Academic Excellence Alliance (AEA) Program.