Critical Practices in Rigorously Assessing the Inherent Activity of Nanoparticle Electrocatalysts
Critical Practices in Rigorously Assessing the Inherent Activity of Nanoparticle Electrocatalysts
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DOI：
10.1021/acscatal.0c03028
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发表时间：
2020-09-18
期刊：
影响因子：
12.9
通讯作者：
Linic, Suljo
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Dix, Sean T.;Lu, Shawn;Linic, Suljo
在过去的几十年里，人们在开发用于各种电化学反应的新型电催化剂方面做了大量的工作，包括氢氧化、氧还原、二氧化碳还原、水氧化和氮气还原。各种单金属、双金属、核壳、贵金属和无贵金属材料，具有多种纳米形状因素(例如，不同形状和大小的纳米颗粒、平面结构等)。为了在降低成本的同时提高电催化剂的活性，已经进行了研究。1−3虽然就不同材料的组成和形状因素而言，这种对不同材料的关注给该领域带来了极大的兴奋，但即使是在相对规模上，也越来越难以严格评估能够比较这些不同材料的关键优值系数。4、5在这个观点下，我们简要讨论了用于评价电催化剂的优值系数，概述了一些在已发表的文献中有时被错误地处理的潜在问题，并描述了一些确保严格评估材料固有的电催化活性的有用的实践。为了说明我们的中心点，我们以电化学氧还原反应(ORR)为例。我们注意到，我们的目标不是对该领域进行全面审查。相反，它是对快速发展的领域中的一小部分提出一个观点，并希望将该领域引向对电催化材料性能进行更严格评估的方向。虽然我们专注于铂基材料的ORR，但我们强调，在分析任何电化学转换时，必须实施相同水平的严格要求，并且根据反应或材料的不同，这可能需要非常不同的方法。
Over past decades, much work has been done in developing novel electrocatalysts for various electrochemical reactions, including hydrogen oxidation, oxygen reduction, CO2 reduction, water oxidation, and N2 reduction. Various monometallic, bimetallic, core@ shell, noble metal and noble-metal free materials, in many nanoscopic form factors (eg, nanoparticles of different shapes and sizes, planar structures, etc.) have been studied in an effort to improve electrocatalyst activity while reducing cost. 1− 3 While this focus on different materials, in terms of their composition and their form factors, has brought a great deal of excitement to the field, it has become increasingly difficult to rigorously assess the critical figures of merit that can compare these different materials, even on a relative scale. 4, 5 In this viewpoint, we briefly discuss the figures of merit used to evaluate electrocatalysts, outline potential issues that have caught our attention as sometimes mishandled in published literature, and describe some useful practices that ensure rigorous assessment of inherent electrocatalytic activity of materials. To illustrate our central points, we use electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) as an example. We note that our goal is not to provide a comprehensive review of the field. Rather, it is to present a viewpoint on a small sliver of the fast-developing field and to hopefully direct the field in the direction of a more rigorous evaluation of the performance of electrocatalytic materials. While we focus on ORR on Pt-based materials, we stress that the same level of rigor must be implemented when analyzing any electrochemical transformations and that, depending on the reactions or the material, this might require very different approaches.