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Platinum on nitrogen doped graphene and tungsten carbide supports for ammonia electro-oxidation reaction

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Abstract

Ammonia electrooxidation reaction involving multistep electron-proton transfer is a significant reaction for fuel cells, hydrogen production and understanding nitrogen cycle. Platinum has been established as the best electrocatalyst for ammonia oxidation in aqueous alkaline media. In this study, Pt/nitrogen-doped graphene (NDG) and Pt/tungsten monocarbide (WC)/NDG are synthesized by a wet chemistry method and their ammonia oxidation activities are compared to commercial Pt/C. Pt/NDG exhibits a specific activity of 0.472 mA·cm−2, which is 44% higher than commercial Pt/C, thus establishing NDG as a more effective support than carbon black. Moreover, it is demonstrated that WC as a support also impacts the activity with further 30% increase in comparison to NDG. Surface modification with Ir resulted in the best electrocatalytic activity with Pt-Ir/WC/NDG having almost thrice the current density of commercial Pt/C. This work adds insights regarding the role of NDG and WC as efficient supports along with significant impact of Ir surface modification.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) (Grant No. SMSEGL20SC01), Innovation and Technology Commission (Grant No. ITC-CNERC14EG03) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and startup funding of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China

    Kumar Siddharth, Yian Wang, Jing Wang, Fei Xiao, Gabriel Sikukuu Nambafu, Usman Bin Shahid, Fei Yang, Ernest Pahuyo Delmo & Minhua Shao

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, South University of Science and Technology of China, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Jing Wang & Fei Yang

  3. Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China

    Minhua Shao

  4. Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Control & Treatment of Heavy Metal Pollution, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China

    Minhua Shao

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  1. Kumar Siddharth
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  2. Yian Wang
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  9. Minhua Shao
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Correspondence to Minhua Shao.

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Siddharth, K., Wang, Y., Wang, J. et al. Platinum on nitrogen doped graphene and tungsten carbide supports for ammonia electro-oxidation reaction. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng. 16, 930–938 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-021-2130-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-021-2130-2

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