Engineering active intermetallic Pt-Zn sites <i>via</i> vapour-solid synthesis for photocatalytic hydrogen production
- Author(s)
- Daniel Garstenauer, Stephen Nagaraju Myakala, Pablo Ayala, Hannah Rabl-Wolff, Ondrej Zobač, Franz Jirsa, Dominik Eder, Alexey Cherevan, Klaus W Richter
- Abstract
Intermetallic compounds hold great potential owing to the possibility of fine tuning their structure- and composition-dependent catalytic properties. Herein, a series of intermetallic Pt-Zn nanoparticles decorated on a TiO2 support was designed via a novel and facile direct vapour-solid synthesis approach, and their co-catalytic performance towards the light-driven hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) was investigated. The intrinsic activity of Pt/TiO2 was almost doubled via the addition of Zn and the formation of Pt27-Zn73/TiO2, achieving a substantial increase in the apparent quantum yield (AQY) values up to 10.3%. In contrast to Pt-Zn intermetallic co-catalysts generally exhibiting higher HER rates, the interaction of Zn with surface defects of TiO2 enhanced the catalyst stability, resulting in strongly suppressed deactivation. This work introduces intermetallic cocatalysts as promising systems, highlighting the influence of composition and structure on catalyst activity and providing future research directions.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Functional Materials and Catalysis, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Core Facility Crystal Structure Analysis
- External organisation(s)
- Vienna Doctoral School in Chemistry (DoSChem), Technische Universität Wien, Czech Academy of Sciences
- Journal
- Sustainable energy & fuels
- ISSN
- 2398-4902
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1039/d5se00487j
- Publication date
- 05-2025
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 204001 Inorganic chemical technology, 104003 Inorganic chemistry, 104008 Catalysis
- Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/50e343a5-9114-4ef0-b227-e18356c33224