Potential‐Cycling Synthesis of Single Platinum Atoms for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution in Neutral Media

Single-atom catalysts (SACs) have exhibited high activities for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysis in acidic or alkaline media, when they are used with binders on cathodes. However, to date, no SACs have been reported for the HER electrocatalysis in neutral media. We demonstrate a potential-cycling method to synthesize a catalyst comprising single Pt atoms on CoP-based nanotube arrays supported by a Ni foam, termed PtSA-NT-NF. This binder-free catalyst is centimeter-scale and scalable. It is directly used as HER cathodes, whose performances at low and high current densities in phosphate buffer solutions (pH 7.2) are comparable to and better than, respectively, those of commercial Pt/C. The…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 21601136, 51572016
• BM
  Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission
• TM
  Tianjin Municipal Education Commission