Separating nanobubble nucleation for transfer-resistance-free electrocatalysis
Electrocatalytic gas-evolving reactions often result in bubble-covered surfaces, impeding the mass transfer to active sites. Such an issue will be worsened in practical high-current-density conditions and can cause sudden cell failure. Herein, we develop an on-chip microcell-based total-internal-reflection-fluorescence-microscopy to enable operando imaging of bubbles at sub-50 nm and dynamic probing of their nucleation during hydrogen evolution reaction. Using platinum-interfacial metal layer-graphene as model systems, we demonstrate that the strong binding energy between interfacial metal layer and graphene-evidenced by a reduced metal-support distance and enhanced charge transfer-facilitates hydrogen spillover from platinum to the graphene support due to lower energy barriers compared to the platinum-graphene system. This results in the spatial separation of bubble nucleation from the platinum surface, notably enhancing catalytic activity, as demonstrated in both microcell and polymer electrolyte membrane cell experiments. Our findings offer insights into bubble nucleation control and the design of electrocatalytic interfaces with minimized transfer resistance.
Authors
- Zude Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3817-4251)
- Zhengyang Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2664-4432)
- Mengyi Qiu
- Shuangyin Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7185-9857)
- Zhuhua Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6406-0959)
- Yongmin He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9347-930X)
- Shasha Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8716-7414)
- Zheng Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8825-7198)
- Wei Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4049-9569)
- Chao Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1589-855X)
- Maolin Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1562-5540)
- Zhili Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8637-9952)
- Dundong Yuan
- Jinn‐Kye Lee
- Yao Wu
Institutions
- National University of Singapore (SG)
- Hunan University (CN)
- Nanyang Technological University (SG)
- Cornell University (US)
- Southeast University (CN)
- Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-01-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55750-5
- Citations
- 23
- Primary Topic
- Minerals Flotation and Separation Techniques
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 18.79
Funders
- Agency for Science, Technology and Research
- Ministry of Education - Singapore
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
- Government of Jiangsu Province
- Ministry of Education, India
- Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province
- Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province
- Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions
- Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology
- Postdoctoral Research Foundation of China
- National Key Research and Development Program of China