Platinum nanowires anchored on graphene-supported platinum nanoparticles as a highly active electrocatalyst towards glucose oxidation for fuel cell applications

Abstract

The limited performance of platinum-based electrocatalysts for glucose electrooxidation is a major concern for glucose fuel cells, since glucose electrooxidation is characterized by slow reaction kinetics and low diffusion coefficient. Here, the presented graphene-supported platinum-based hierarchical nanostructures attain highly enhanced electrocatalytic activity towards glucose oxidation. Platinum nanoparticles electrodeposited on graphene support retain mechanical stability and act as junctions allowing a reliable, smooth and dense growth of platinum nanowires with extremely small diameters (>10 nm) on graphene. The electrode's surface roughness was increased by factors up to 4000 to the geometrical surface area enabling maximized exploitation of the electrocatalytic activity of platinum and efficient electron transfer between nanowires and the substrate. The unique three-dimensional geometry of these hierarchical nanostructures has a significant impact on their catalytic performance offering short diffusional paths for slow glucose species, thus, mass transport limitations are optimized leading to lower polarization losses. This was examined by galvanostatic measurements of the operation as anodes in glucose half-cells under conditions corresponding to implantable glucose fuel cells. The presented hierarchical nanostructures show remarkably enhanced catalytic performance for glucose electrooxidation, i.e. a negatively shifted open circuit potential of -580 mV vs. Ag/AgCl, hence, representing appropriate electrocatalysts for use as anodes in glucose fuel cells. In combination with a non-metal N-doped graphene cathode, a cell potential of 0.65 V was achieved at a galvanostatic load of 17.5 μA cm which noticeably surpasses the performance of state of the art catalysts for the aforementioned operation conditions.

A Hybrid Biofuel and Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Bioenergy Harvesting

“…After adding the glucose in PBS, CV curve shows increased faradaic currents due to glucose oxidation in three regions. In anodic positive scan, glucose oxidation occurred in two regions, including the hydrogen desorption region from -0.6 to -0.4 V and the double-layer region from − 0.4 to 0.2 V. The third region for glucose oxidation occurred in the cathodic negative scan, i.e., hydrogen adsorption region from − 0.6 to 0.1 V [ 43 ]. These results indicated the qualified biochemical energy-harvesting ability of the as-fabricated GFC.…”

Platinum Group Nanowires for Efficient Electrocatalysis

“…The interactions between nanowires and supports have positive effect on the catalytic performance, because it increases the surface area, accelerates the charge transfer, and is effective in enhancing the stability. In the catalyst design, the supporting materials for nanowires include carbon sphere, graphene, and Ni(OH) 2 . Moreover, the large number of active sites on the conductive supports provides numerous sites for the growth of hard‐reduced noble metals with high dispersity and strong interaction …”

“…In the catalyst design, the supporting materials for nanowires include carbon sphere, graphene, and Ni(OH) 2 . [48][49][50] Moreover, the large number of active sites on the conductive supports provides numerous sites for the growth of hard-reduced noble metals with high dispersity and strong interaction. [51,52] Based on the above discussion, let us summarize the strategies that are suitable for PG nanowires.…”

Nickel Catalysts Supported on Acetylene Black for High-Efficient Electrochemical Oxidation and Sensitive Detection of Glucose

“…Recently, glucose fuel cell (GFC) has been considered as an ideal renewable energy device due to the non-toxicity, cleanliness, and huge theoretical energy density (4430 Wh/kg) [1][2][3][4]. However, the sluggish glucose oxidation kinetics and its low diffusion coefficient at the anode are the major obstacles that must be addressed for further development of the GFCs [5,6].…”

“…To date, different functional materials have been reported as electrocatalysts for the electrochemical oxidation and detection of glucose, including CuCo 2 S 4 nanosheets grown on carbon fiber [16], platinum nanowires anchored on graphene-supported platinum nanoparticles [1], Co 3 O 4 nanocrystals [17], and CuO nanorods derived from metal-organic framework. Recently, because the low valence state Ni(II) can be transformed to strong oxidizing high valence state Ni(III) species by electrochemically oxidation process, which can catalyze the glucose to gluconolactone and go back to Ni(II) at the same time, nickel-based materials gradually become a star catalyst for high efficient electrochemical glucose reaction [18][19][20].…”