RESUMEN
To develop durable and low-price catalysts of methanol oxidation to commercialize direct methanol fuel cell, many attempts have been made at fabricating Pt-based hybrids by designing component-, morphology-, facet-, integration-pattern-varied nanostructures, and have achieved considerable successes. However, most of present catalysts still lack robust catalytic durability especially owing to the corrosion of mixed carbon and the poor mechanical stability of catalyst layer. Herein, Te nanowire array is transformed at an air/water interface into a 3D Pt16 Te hierarchical nanostructure via an interface-confined galvanic replacement reaction. As-formed Pt16 Te nanostructure has an asymmetrical architecture composed of nanotroughs and nanopillars, and nanopillars are perpendicular to nanotroughs with a loose arrangement. Pt16 Te hierarchical nanostructure has a "self-supported" feature and, when directly used as the catalyst of methanol electrooxidation, exhibits superior catalytic activity (>four times larger in mass activity than state-of-the-art Pt/C in either acidic or basic solution) and long-term durability (after 500 cycles of cyclic voltammetric measurement, more than 55% of the initial specific activity remains whereas Pt/C only remains 22.2% in acidic solution and almost loses all activity in basic solution). This study fully demonstrates that designing "self-supported" catalyst film may be the next promising step for improving the catalytic performance of Pt-based hybrids.
RESUMEN
Pt-based multi-metallic electrocatalysts containing hetero-junctions are found to have superior catalytic performance to composition-equivalent counterparts. However, in bulk solution, controllable preparation of Pt-based hetero-junction electrocatalyst is an extremely random work owing to the complexity of solution reactions. Herein, we develop an interface-confined transformation strategy, subtly achieving Au/PtTe hetero-junction-abundant nanostructures by employing interfacial Te nanowires as sacrificing templates. By controlling the reaction conditions, composition-varied Au/PtTe can be easily obtained, such as Au75/Pt20Te5, Au55/Pt34Te11, and Au5/Pt69Te26. Moreover, each Au/PtTe hetero-junction nanostructure appears to be an array consisting of side-by-side Au/PtTe nanotrough units and can be directly used as a catalyst layer without further post-treatment. All Au/PtTe hetero-junction nanostructures show better catalytic activity towards ethanol electrooxidation than commercial Pt/C because of the combining contributions of Au/Pt hetero-junctions and the collective effects of multi-metallic elements, where Au75/Pt20Te5 exhibits the best electrocatalytic performance among three Au/PtTe nanostructures owing to its optimal composition. This study may provide technically feasible guidance for further maximizing the catalytic activity of Pt-based hybrid catalysts.
RESUMEN
One-dimensional (1D) morphology-unique Au-Ag2S nano-hybrids are achieved by combining the interfacial self-assembly of Ag nanowires, interface-oriented site-specific etching of Ag nanowires with AuCl4-, and the sulfurization of S2-. The as-formed Au-Ag2S nano-hybrid has a trough-like morphology. The wall of the Au-Ag2S nanotrough is a Ag2S/Au/Ag2S trilayer wall, but the Ag2S layer is a Ag2S-rich mixture of Ag2S and Au rather than pure Ag2S because of the diffusion of Au atoms towards Ag2S. The Au-Ag2S nanotrough shows strong absorption in the visible region (400-800 nm) and exhibits a favorable photoelectrochemical (PEC) response, the photocurrent of which is â¼8.5 times larger than that of pure Ag2S. This enhanced PEC response originates from the localized plasmonic resonance effect of Au. Moreover, the PEC biosensor based on the Au-Ag2S nanotroughs shows high sensitivity and selectivity, satisfactory reproducibility, and good stability towards human α-thrombin (TB) detection: a sensitive linear response ranging from 1.00 to 10.00 pmol L-1 and a low detection limit of 0.67 pmol L-1. This study provides a new model for studying the PEC behavior of plasmonic metal/semiconductor materials, and this Au-Ag2S nanotrough may also be useful in the fields of photocatalysis and photovoltaics.