A Facile Route to Large‐Area 2D Pt
Platinum (Pt) is a popular hydrogen-evolution reaction (HER) catalyst, yet its high-cost limits industrial deployment. This is addressed by incorporating an oxygen-deficient, gallium (Ga)-rich gallium oxide (GaO<sub>x</sub>) adhesion layer that reverses the dewetting thermodynamics, yielding continuous 2D Pt at sub-nanometer thickness by simple direct current (DC) sputtering. Alloy anchoring and vacancy chemisorption produce mechanically robust, transparent, conductive films with high thermal stability. During HER, 2D Pt/GaO<sub>x</sub> reduces, forming a Ga-Pt that further smoothens. The 1 nm film matches bulk Pt electrocatalytic activity while sustaining 1A cm<sup>-2</sup> for 100 h without decay. Revealing the wetting mechanism including the effect of adhesion layer, and the depositing metals, the strategy generalizes to other noble metals with adhesion layers, offering a scalable route to ultrathin catalytic and electronic platforms.
Authors
- Weiyin Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6427-4129)
- Aubrey Penn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7586-1655)
- Minsik Kong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0865-7635)
- Ju Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7841-8058)
- Zhen Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2651-6449)
- Ethan Yupeng Zheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5536-285X)
Institutions
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Science
- Published
- 2025-11-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202517427
- Primary Topic
- Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- National Research Foundation
- National Research Foundation of Korea