<i>Operando</i> XAFS Reveals Dynamic Structural Evolution of Pt Single‐Atom Catalysts for Efficient Chlorine Electrosynthesis
Abstract Metal single‐atom catalysts (SACs) with near‐100% metal utilization and flexible coordination environments are promising candidates for electrochemical chlorine evolution reaction (CER) to produce valuable Cl 2 —a key raw material for plastics manufacturing, water treatment, and pharmaceuticals. However, it remains challenging to assess specific coordination environments for structure–activity relationships and monitor their dynamic structural evolution under catalytic reaction conditions. Herein, operando X‐ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) revealed distinct dynamic structural evolution on the low‐coordinated Pt site, compared to the conventional PtN 4 site. Specifically, the low‐coordinated Pt site transformed into an asymmetry PtN 2 Cl 2 structure upon exposure to a Cl − ‐containing solution, transiently evolved to PtN 2 Cl 4 intermediate at low overpotentials, and reverted to PtN 2 Cl 2 after CER. By overcoming the limitation of *Cl intermediate coverage on PtN 4 SAC, the low‐coordinated Pt SAC displayed superior CER performance to commercial RuO 2 and PtN 4 benchmarks. This work provides new insights into the rational design of coordination geometry in SACs for electrocatalysis.
Authors
- Yong Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7926-3959)
- Tierui Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7948-9413)
- Yitao Cao
- Bingbao Mei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4195-7151)
- Ya‐Qian Lan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2140-7980)
- Youhao Liao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3617-6847)
- Weiren Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6938-6296)
- Guangbo Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1927-3642)
- Qing Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5968-3235)
- Jie Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1151-0116)
- Shun‐Li Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6163-2795)
- Daiki Kido (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0612-2047)
Institutions
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (JP)
- South China Normal University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI (JP)
- Shanghai Advanced Research Institute (CN)
- Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (CN)
- Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Angewandte Chemie
- Published
- 2025-08-25
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.202513656
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.36
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
- National Key Research and Development Program of China