Single-atom (SA) decoration of 1D semimetallic titania nanostructures (STN): a conductive electrode for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution (HER)

一维半金属二氧化钛纳米结构（STN）的单原子（SA）装饰：用于电催化析氢（HER）的导电电极

• 批准号: 521961225
• 负责人: Dr.-Ing. Seyedsina Hejazi, Ph.D.
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: WBP Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2022-12-31 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/521961225?language=en
• 关键词: Single; atom; SA; decoration; 1D

Hydrogen (H2) is the most promising future form of renewable clean energy source. Currently, industrial H2 production is based on reforming natural gas, which uses a high amount of non-renewable energy while producing carbon dioxide. A sustainable and environmentally friendly H2 production approach is electrochemical water splitting. Therefore, enhancing the efficiency and improving the economic aspects of electrochemical water splitting is a primary goal of research worldwide. The presence of a catalyst to minimize the overpotential required for the H2 evolution reaction (HER) is essential to enhance the efficiency of water splitting. Platinum is the most well-known catalyst for HER, mainly due to the fact that it requires very small overpotentials. However, the high cost and scarcity of Pt restrict its prevalent technological use. By designing new catalyst materials for the HER, researchers aim to expand their understanding of the properties and surface structures that govern HER stability and activity. The present research proposal aims at creating a novel and highly defined platform for electrocatalytic hydrogen generation using Single-Atom (SA) decorated Semimetallic Titania-based Nanocavities (STN) as a non-expensive and highly efficient electrode for HER with boosted activity and long-term stability. The key novelty of the proposed approach is the combination of defect-engineered titania-based semimetallic nanostructures with the advanced single-atom decoration strategy to fabricate a platform to be employed as an HER electrode in the green H2 production industry. It is expected that the synergistic effect of three golden features, i.e., i) directional charge transfer in a one-dimensional back contacted (1D) structure, ii) single atom decoration, and iii) surface-exposed Ti3+ centers in an SA-STN assembly, will lead to a boosted HER activity. As a proof of concept, in the last work package of the project, we aim to implant the optimized HER electrode in a commercial polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzer, which will provide benchmark information regarding the long-term activity and stability of the electrode in a standard and onsite measurement conditions.

氢气（H2）是未来最有前途的可再生清洁能源。目前，工业H2生产是基于重整天然气，其使用大量的不可再生能源，同时产生二氧化碳。一种可持续和环境友好的H2生产方法是电化学水分解。因此，提高电化学水分解的效率和经济性是全球研究的主要目标。催化剂的存在以最小化析氢反应（HER）所需的过电位对于提高水裂解的效率是必不可少的。铂是HER最知名的催化剂，主要是因为它需要非常小的过电位。然而，铂的高成本和稀缺性限制了其普遍的技术应用。通过为HER设计新的催化剂材料，研究人员旨在扩大他们对控制HER稳定性和活性的性质和表面结构的理解。目前的研究计划旨在创建一个新的和高度定义的平台，用于电催化制氢，使用单原子（SA）修饰的半金属二氧化钛基纳米腔（SAM-based Nanocavities）作为一种廉价和高效的电极，用于HER，具有增强的活性和长期稳定性。所提出的方法的关键新奇是缺陷工程二氧化钛基半金属纳米结构与先进的单原子装饰策略相结合，以制造一个平台，作为HER电极在绿色H2生产行业。预计三个黄金特征的协同效应，即，i）一维背接触（1D）结构中的定向电荷转移，ii）单原子装饰，和iii）SA-TiO 2组装中的表面暴露的Ti 3+中心，将导致HER活性增强。作为概念验证，在该项目的最后一个工作包中，我们的目标是将优化的HER电极植入商业聚合物电解质膜（PEM）电解槽中，这将提供有关电极在标准和现场测量条件下的长期活性和稳定性的基准信息。