Highly dispersed platinum on LaNi nanoparticles/nanoporous carbon for highly efficient electrocatalyic hydrogen evolution

Abstract

Herein, we provide a two-step method to synthetize a cost-effective Pt1.5La1.5Ni12/NPC (NPC = nanoporous carbon) multimetallic electrocatalyst with a novel nanostructure of ultralow Pt decorated LaNi alloy nanoparticles for the hydrogen evolution reaction-HER in 1.0 M aqueous potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution. The catalytic performance of Pt1.5La1.5Ni12/NPC for the HER outperforms than Pt2La1Ni12/NPC, Pt1La2Ni12/NPC, Pt1.5La13.5/NPC, Pt1.5Ni13.5/NPC, La3Ni12/NPC and commercial Pt/C, and Pt1.5La1.5Ni12/NPC requires ultralow overpotential of 20 mV@10 mA cm−2, 132 mV@100 mA cm−2. It is due to the synergy (electron) effect among Pt-, La- and Ni-related species (electron from Pt to La and Ni), thus changing the electronic structure of the Pt-, Ni- and La-related species. The incorporation of La and Ni could facilitate the formation of OHads and Hads by water dissociation and weaken the bonding strength of Pt-Hads. The Pt1.5La1.5Ni12/NPC catalyst also shows outstanding stability during the HER process.