Dissolution Stability of Graphene-Modified Pt(111)
Authors: Briega Martos Valentin , Lloret Vicent , Maier Maximilian , Hilpert Felix , Escalera-Lopez Daniel , Boehm Thomas , Brummel Olaf , Libuda Jörg , Thiele Simon , Cherevko Serhiy 
Published: August 2024

Pt plays a leading role in electrocatalysis, being the best pure metal catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) taking place at the cathode of the commercial polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In addition, it is usually used in the cathode to catalyze the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in water electrolyzers for hydrogen production. Apart from activity, stability is another critical parameter to consider when evaluating the performance of electrochemical energy conversion devices. Even pure Pt catalysts degrade under real-life conditions due to electro-oxidation and dissolution processes. Fundamental studies with well-defined Pt surfaces are mandatory for understanding these phenomena and developing new electrocatalysts with improved activity and stability.1 Different types of protection on the surface of electrocatalysts, such as carbon layers or ceria surrounding metal nanoparticles,2-4 have been investigated to enhance their stability while maintaining or improving their activity towards a reaction of interest. Here, we propose the modification of Pt(111) single crystal electrode with an adlayer of graphene as a model system to evaluate the protection mechanism of carbon-capped catalysts.

In this work, the stability of graphene-modified Pt(111) in 0.1 M HClO4 is studied by on-line inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) measurements using an electrochemical scanning flow cell (SFC). The Pt(111) surface was modified by a fast and easy transfer method of a commercially available chemical vapor deposited (CVD) graphene single-layer. The cyclic voltammetry results are comparable to those previously reported for surfaces prepared by direct CVD on the Pt(111) electrode.5 To test the quality of the graphene adlayer we checked the electrocatalytic activities towards different reactions of interest, such as ORR, HER and hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR), and compared the results with the previous works.6 The graphene-modified Pt(111) surface presents enhanced stability since no dissolution is detected for a cyclic voltammetry experiment at 10 mV s-1 with an upper potential limit (UPL) of 1.3 V vs. RHE. In contrast, evident Pt dissolution is observed for the unmodified surface. Different accelerated stress test (AST) protocols consisting in groups of 50 cyclic voltammetries at 200 mV s-1 were performed up to three different UPL, namely 1.3 V, 1.5 V and 1.7 V vs. RHE, showing almost no dissolution over the protocol when UPL = 1.3 V, while the integrity of the graphene adlayer was quickly compromised for UPL = 1.7 V as pointed out by the quick increase in Pt dissolution. The degradation of the graphene layer in the different conditions was additionally characterized by Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The results from this work provide useful information about the behavior of carbon capping agents on Pt surfaces, which can help to design new electrocatalytic materials with improved stability.

References

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