The 2018 Joseph W. Richards Summer Research Fellowship – Summary Report: The Effect of Mixed Ligands on the Oxygen Reduction Reaction Electrocatalytic Performance of Platinum Nanoparticles' name='citation_title

摘要

The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is a critical process at the cathode of fuel cells and metal-air batteries andit has been well known that the widespreadapplications of fuel cells are large impededby the sluggish electron-transfer kinetics ofORR, and the platinum-based materials havebeen used extensively as the electrocatalystsof choice. Yet, due to the high costs andlow natural abundance of Pt, it is criticalto further enhance the activity and reducethe usage of Pt. Till now, a lot of e?ortshave been contributed in the past decade,and a lot of progress has been made.1-4Previous studies in our group have shownthat the acetylene derivatives can be used tofunctionalize Pt nanoparticles and enhancethe ORR performance due to intraparticlecharge delocalization.5,6 However, the highdensity of the organic capping ligandswhich has a hydrophobic feature wouldsomehow suppress the ORR activity. On theother hand, recent density functional theorycalculations suggested that the adsorbedoxygenated species plays a signifcant roleduring the ORR process7 thus the existenceof exposed Pt surface should be critical forthe formation of these oxygenated species.This motivated us to study the e?ect ofreduced amount of acetylene ligands on Ptsurface on the ORR performance.