Carbon-Supported Divacancy-Anchored Platinum Single-Atom Electrocatalysts with Super high Pt Utilization for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Jing Liu+, Menggai Jiao+, Bingbao Mei+, Yuxin Tong+, Yuping Li, Mingbo Ruan, Ping Song,Gongquan Sun, Luhua Jiang, Ying Wang, Zheng Jiang, Lin Gu, Zhen Zhou,* and Weilin Xu*

Abstract:

Maximizing the platinum utilization in electrocatalysts toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is very desirable for large-scale sustainable application of Pt in energy systems. A cost-effective carbon-supported carbon-defect-anchored platinum single-atom electrocatalysts (Pt1/C) with remarkable ORR performance is reported. An acidic H2/O2 single cell with Pt1/C as cathode delivers a maximum power density of 520 mWcm@2 at 80^oC, corresponding to a super high platinum utilization of 0.09 g Pt/kW. Further physical characterization and density functional theory computations reveal that single Pt atoms anchored stably by four carbon atoms in carbon divacancies (Pt-C4) are the main active centers for the observed high ORR performance.

DOL: 10.1002/anie.201812423