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Research Article

Nucleation growth quenching for superior cluster catalysts

Ruyue Wang1,2,3,4, Feng Cheng5, Yonggang Wang2, Dongyu Fan2, Bohan Deng3, Yuanzheng Long3, Haolin Tang1( ), Kai Huang2,3( ), Zhaowei Qu2, Ming Lei2, Binghui Ge5( ), Hui Wu3( )
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
State Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical Communications, School of Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China
State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Beijing Key Laboratory of Space-ground Interconnection and Convergence, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), Beijing 100876, China
Information Materials and Intelligent Sensing Laboratory of Anhui Province, Key Laboratory of Structure and Functional Regulation of Hybrid Materials of Ministry of Education, Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, China
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Graphical Abstract

Adopting the quenching strategy of the local instantaneous high-temperature reaction, vacancy-defect rich metal compound clusters were rapidly generated. By the introduction of alkaline solutions, a unique method of rapidly and efficiently preparing metal oxide clusters has been further discovered, and the obtained oxide clusters can be uniformly dispersed and anchored onto the substrate. Synthesized IrO2-based electrode exhibited high oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity and long-term operational stability in alkaline electrolyte solutions, superior to the commercial IrO2 and most other previously reported Ir-based catalysts.

Abstract

Cluster catalysts are rapidly growing into an important sub-field in heterogeneous catalysis, owing to their distinct geometric structure, neighboring metal sites, and unique electronic structure. Although the thermodynamics and kinetics of the formation of nanoparticles have been largely investigated, the precise synthesis of clusters in wet chemical methods still faces great challenges. In the study, a quenching strategy of asymmetric temperature in solution for the rapid generation of vacancy-defect rich clusters is reported. The quenching process can be used to synthesize multitudinous metal compound clusters, including metal oxides, fluorides, oxygen-sulfur compounds, and tungstate. For oxygen evolution reaction (OER), IrO2 clusters with abundant oxygen vacancies were obtained and uniformly dispersed in the solution. Compared to commercial IrO2, the prepared IrO2 cluster can be directly loaded on carbon paper and used as binder-free electrodes, which exhibit higher OER activity and long-term operational stability in alkaline electrolytes. The quenching strategy provides a simple and efficient method for the synthesis of clusters, which has tremendous potential for industrial-scale preparation and application, especially can be further applied to flow electrochemical generators.

Keywords

rapid-chillingcluster structuretransition metal compoundsbinder-free electrodeoxygen evolution reaction

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Nano Research
Volume 15 Issue 9,
September 2022
Pages 7933-7939
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-022-4465-5
Cite this article:
Wang R, Cheng F, Wang Y, et al. Nucleation growth quenching for superior cluster catalysts. Nano Research, 2022, 15(9): 7933-7939. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4465-5
Topics:
Nanocatalysts

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Received: 03 March 2022
Revised: 12 April 2022
Accepted: 22 April 2022
Published: 30 June 2022
© Tsinghua University Press 2022
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