Explicit atomic coordinations of binary metal atoms on
low-dimensional
host–guest-type bimetallic nanomaterials can arouse unique
ensemble effects and significantly improve the catalysis performances,
but they confront a formidable challenge in chemical synthesis. Here,
we draw on a thermoinduced secondary crystallization process of preprepared
amorphous/crystalline hybrid ultrathin Rh nanosheets (NSs) to capture
Pt atoms into the two-dimensional (2D) Rh lattice, by which precisely
controlled Pt atomic dispersions from a single atom to dual atoms
and to clustered atoms can be facilely elected and embedded into the
ultrathin Rh hosts. Among them, the dual-Pt atom-on-Rh (denoted as
Pt2–Rh) NSs exhibit an extremely high activity and
an excellent CO tolerance for the alkaline hydrogen oxidation reaction
(HOR), achieving a 18.5 times higher mass activity at 50 mV overpotential
than that of commercial Pt/C. Theoretical studies indicate that the
host–guest ensemble effect aroused by the specific pairwise
Pt2-on-Rh coordination feature can moderately enhance both
the surface *H and *OH bindings, which synergistically lower the free
energy of the rate-determining Volmer step and thus promote the combination
of neighboring *H and *OH to form H2O. Enhanced *H adsorption
can also prevent the main available sites from being occupied by hydroxyl
groups in alkaline conditions. The free energy diagram and anti-CO
experiments coherently indicate that the oxidation of *CO by neighboring
*OH to form *COOH is kinetically more favorable to proceed on the
Pt2–Rh NSs, effectively preventing the catalysts
from being poisoned. This work sheds light on the ensemble effect
of host–guest heteroatom coordinations for designing high-efficiency
alkaline HOR catalysts.