Insulin Amyloid Fibrils: An Excellent Platform for Controlled Synthesis of Ultrathin Superlong Platinum Nanowires with High Electrocatalytic Activity

Abstract

Highly uniform single-crystal ultrathin Pt nanowires (UTPtNWs) with a diameter of ~1.8 nm and a superhigh aspect ratio of >10(4) were fabricated using insulin amyloid fibrils (INSAFs) as sacrificial templates. The use of INSAFs to build the UTPtNWs allowed for the preferential exposure of low-energy crystal facets that would be highly advantageous for the methanol oxidation reaction. The UTPtNWs displayed a large electrochemical active surface area of 71.34 m(2)/g, which is much higher than that of a commercial Pt/C catalyst. The UTPtNWs also maintained excellent electrochemical durability under repeated cyclic voltammetry scans. Because of its exciting high electrochemical activity, UTPtNWs is a promising material for the design of next-generation electrocatalysts and would also be useful in sensing, biomedical, and other electrochemical applications.

Synthesis and Electrocatalytic Activity Evaluation of Nanoflower Shaped Ni-Pd on Alcohol Oxidation Reaction

“…[17][18][19][20][21][22][23] It is, however, aiming at reducing the usage of the precious Pt metal and hence the cost of FCs, the development of non-Pt electrocatalysts has thus generated a great deal of interest. 9 It has shown that the Pd is a promising electrocatalyst because of much cheaper than Pt and highly electroactive to the small organic molecules (i.e.…”

Ultrathin platinum nanowires grown on single-layered nickel hydroxide with high hydrogen evolution activity

“…Unlike previous reports involving utilization of Pt electrodes 8,[19][20][21][22] , the selection of single-layered 2D Ni(OH) 2 (SL-Ni(OH) 2 ) nanosheets as the substrates is based on cost considerations 28,29 , as SL-Ni(OH) 2 sheets might be cheaply acquired via exfoliation of lamellar a-Ni(OH) 2 (refs 30-33). Furthermore, compared with commonly used zero-dimensional (0D) Pt nanoparticles (NPs), 1D ultrathin Pt NWs of high aspect ratios, few lattice boundaries and smooth crystal planes offer the opportunity for improvement of the catalytic activity [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] . Meanwhile, a large contact area between Pt NWs and the Ni(OH) 2 substrates can effectively alleviate possible migration and aggregation of Pt NWs and thus benefit enhancement of the catalytic stability 40 .…”

Controlled Synthesis of Pt–Pd Nanoparticle Chains with High Electrocatalytic Activity Based on Insulin Amyloid Fibrils

“…16 By incubating INSAFs in metal salt solution for several hours, the selected amide sites on INSAFs can recognize and interact with metal ions. 15 After reduction, Pt-Pd nanoparticles grew in situ sites and formed 1D nanoparticle chains structure. The low-magni¯cation TEM image [ Fig.…”

“…15 However, the direct synthesis of 1D Pt-M nanocrystals by using INSAFs has not been achieved. Here, Pt-Pd nanoparticles with an uniform particle size of 2.5 nm were synthesized along the insulin¯brils, and thus formed a 1D chain structure with length up to several micrometers.…”