Tunable Assembly of Protein Enables Fabrication of Platinum Nanostructures with Different Catalytic Activity

Abstract

Proteins are promising biofunctional units for the construction of nanomaterials (NMs) due to their abundant binding sites, intriguing self-assembly properties, and mild NM synthetic conditions. Tobacco mosaic virus coat protein (TMVCP) is a protein capable of self-assembly into distinct morphologies depending on the solution pH and ionic strength. Herein, we report the use of TMVCP as a building block to organize nanosized platinum into discrete nanorings and isolated nanoparticles by varying the solution pH to modulate the protein assembly state. Compared with a commercial Pt/C catalyst, the TMVCPtemplated platinum materials exhibited significant promotion of the catalytic activity and stability toward methanol electrooxidation in both neutral and alkaline conditions. The enhanced catalytic performance is likely facilitated by the protein support. Additionally, Pt nanorings outperformed isolated nanoparticles, although they are both synthesized on TMVCP templates. This could be due to the higher mechanical stability of the protein disk structure and possible cooperative effects between adjacent nanoparticles in the ring with narrow interparticle spacing.

Copper Nanoparticles Dotted on Copper Sulfide Nanosheets for Selective Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Glycerol to Formate

“…The peaks at 529.5, 531.2, and 532.2 eV correspond to the lattice oxygen, surface hydroxyl groups, and water molecules adsorbed on the catalyst surface, respectively. − The change of peak area percentage of surface hydroxyl groups with potential is summarized in Figure e. More hydroxyl oxygen was adsorbed on the catalyst surface as the potential increased to 1.45 V, which accelerated the oxidation of adsorbed GLY molecules, thereby releasing more active sites for further GLY oxidation. , …”

“…More hydroxyl oxygen was adsorbed on the catalyst surface as the potential increased to 1.45 V, which accelerated the oxidation of adsorbed GLY molecules, thereby releasing more active sites for further GLY oxidation. 41,42 DFT calculations were performed based on the PBE functional to confirm why Cu-CuS/BM has the superior GOR performance. The adsorption energies of GLY molecules on the different sites of Cu-CuS/BM including Cu nanoparticles and CuS nanosheets were calculated.…”

N-doped carbon confined CoFe@Pt nanoparticles with robust catalytic performance for the methanol oxidation reaction

“…In addition, with the increase of the scan rate, the forward peak current density gradually increases and the peak potential shis to a positive value, indicating that the catalytic processes are diffusioncontrolled. 50,51 The extracted peak current densities of the two catalysts exhibit an obvious linear relationship with the square root of the scanning rate (Fig. 4c).…”

Dual Matrix Influence on Ni(II) Rich Hybrid Catalyst for Electrochemical Methanol Oxidation Reaction

“…Fuel cells are advantageous as they lead to the production of clean energy from chemical energy without making any adverse impact on the environment [13] . Among fuel cells direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) are found to be potential candidate for power resource with the benefits of higher energy density, low pollutant emission [14–19] . The cheaper cost, low operating temperature, easy transportation and abundant supply also makes methanol suitable as liquid fuel [20,21] .…”

“…[13] Among fuel cells direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) are found to be potential candidate for power resource with the benefits of higher energy density, low pollutant emission. [14][15][16][17][18][19] The cheaper cost, low operating temperature, easy transportation and abundant supply also makes methanol suitable as liquid fuel. [20,21] Although the DMFC technology has able to attract the eyes of the scientific community buts its commercialization is restricted by certain challenges involve in the methanol oxidation process.…”