Environmental friendly synthesis of hierarchical mesoporous platinum nanoparticles templated by fucoidan biopolymer for enhanced hydrogen evolution reaction

摘要

Researching novel hydrogen evolution reaction(HER)catalysts with enhanced electrocatalytic activity,excellent stability,and cost-efficiency is of great significance for the large-scale hydrogen production from industrial electrolysis technology.We report the preparation of hierarchical mesoporous-Pt nanoparticles(HM-Pt NPs)with coral-like rough surface morphologies using environmental friendly and biocompatible fucoidan(Fu)biopolymer as a surface engineering compound and its application to electrocatalysts for water-splitting.The designed HM-Pt NPs yields better mass activity of electrocatalysts compared to a commercial Pt/C.HM-Pt NPs showed an overpotential of 33 mV at 10 mA cm-2 for the HER in 0.5 MH2SO4,which was highly comparable to that of the commercial Pt/C catalysts(29 mV).However,the amount of HM-Pt NPs loaded in glassy carbon electrode(0.033 mg mL-1)was approximately 20 times lower than that of the commercial Pt/C(0.64 mg mL-1.The HM-Pt NPs also maintained high catalytic stability with a consistent HER current density after 1000 continuous operation.The excellent HER performance is attributed to the improved electrochemical surface area,highly porous structure,and good surface wettability of the HM-Pt NPs,which results in enhanced electrocatalytic activity,decreased resistance at the electrode/electrolyte interface,and facile penetration of the electrolytes inside the electrode.