Publication date: 28th August 2024
The quest for clean, renewable energy is the defining challenge of the 21st century, with green hydrogen emerging as a cornerstone for the next industrial revolution. As a high-energy-density fuel, hydrogen, derived from water, offers vast potential for revolutionizing industries ranging from transportation to chemical production. Central to this process is the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), which, when coupled with the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), drives water electrolysis—an essential technology for sustainable hydrogen production.
To date, platinum-based catalysts remain the gold standard for HER due to their unmatched activity. However, the limited availability and high cost of platinum hinder its widespread adoption, making the development of alternative strategies crucial. Recent advances in nanoparticle synthesis have opened new avenues for optimizing platinum’s performance through structural modifications, including alloying, surface engineering, and morphological control. These strategies are aimed at reducing platinum usage while enhancing its catalytic efficiency and stability [1].
Among these approaches, bimetallic plasmonic-catalytic (antenna-reactor) nanomaterials—particularly AuPt structures containing ultraslow Pt loadings—are very promising. By leveraging the plasmonic properties of gold and the catalytic activity of platinum, these materials may exhibit enhanced activities compared to monometallic catalysts [2]. In this work, we explore the role of morphology and composition in determining the catalytic efficiency of AuPt antenna-reactor nano materials. Specifically, we investigate the effects of varying platinum coverage in both zero-dimensional (0D) nanospheres and one-dimensional (1D) nanowires, focusing on how these structural differences impact HER performance.
Our findings demonstrate that AuPt nanostructures with controlled platinum content and morphology significantly enables the optimisation of catalytic activities. By comparing 0D and 1D Au@Pt configurations, we uncovered fundamental insights into how dimensionality and surface engineering influence reactivity and stability under both dark and visible light illumination conditions. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of how plasmonic bimetallic catalysts can be engineered to accelerate the hydrogen evolution reaction, offering a pathway to more efficient and sustainable hydrogen production.
This work was supported by the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, the Academy of Finland (decision number 350208), and seed funding from the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS). IbrahiM Abdelsalam acknowledges funding from doctoral school of material research and nanoscience (MATRNA) and University of Helsinki Doctoral School.
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